My Best Friend's Wedding
by CdnJAGScribe
Summary: The wedding of Sarah Mackenzie to Mic Brumby goes through thanks to a few friends of Harm's. (just pure unadulterated AU nonsense – Harm and Skates don't go down in the Atlantic and they make it back for the wedding)
1. Sneaky Shyster

"My Best _Friend's_ Wedding"

Author: Haruo Chikamori

E-mail: hhchikamori

Rating: M

Classification:

Spoilers: N/A

Summary: The wedding of Sarah Mackenzie to Mic Brumby goes through thanks to a few friends of Harm's. (just pure unadulterated **AU** nonsense – Harm and Skates don't go down in the Atlantic and they make it back for the wedding)

DISCLAIMER: The characters Harm Rabb, Jr., Sarah "Mac" Mackenzie, Meg Austin, AJ Chegwidden, Bud Roberts, Harriet Sims-Roberts et al. belong (in concept if not name) to CBS/Bellisarius. Animal and all OC characters are the property of Heather and Hugo Chikamori. No profit is being made from this story, nor is any infringement intended.

Author's Note: If there is one thing I hate: its writer's block. It's an insidious problem for authors that never seems to resolve itself. The temporary solution I found that works for me is to start another story. The only problem with that is the fact that when I start another story, I keep writing until I run smack into another brick wall…then have to rinse and repeat. Hence the reason I now have 11 bloody fics on the go. ~sigh~ it never fails.

* * *

 _ **USS Patrick Henry**_ (CVN-74 (AN: in RL, the CVN-74 is the USS John C. Stennis)), _**Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean; 2001 1645hrs**_

"Well, Commander Rabb…looks like you've finished another set of quals. Same time next year?" Captain Tobias Ingles smirked at the tall JAG commander and former US Naval Aviator.

"Well, that's if the US Navy hasn't put the Tomcat to bed, sir," returned Harm as he looked over at the return schedule to NAS Oceana. If there was a chance that he could ferry an F-14 home to Oceana he was going to sure give it the college try to convince the captain of the USS Patrick Henry to allow him to fly the Tomcat back.

"Are you lookin' for a ride back to Oceana?" CAPT Ingles' mouth twisted into a grumpy _superior officer_ 's expression; he knew exactly what Rabb's close inspection of the flight roster was. Harm's expression was innocence personified and CAPT Ingles could tell exactly what Harm was thinking "Bullshit, Commander, I know you…" Ingles said as he couldn't restrain a snort. "You're looking for a ferry ride back with you at the controls. You know COMSECONDFLT is going to shit bricks. And considering we both know him as a friend, he's going to have my ass in a sling." Ingles shook his head. "No, Commander, you're going home on the COD! No two ways 'bout it…"

"Sir…" A Lieutenant Commander stopped the Captain in the corridor just before the next knee-knocker. "Doc said Crenshaw and Simpkins are both down with the flu, sir. They won't be able to make the ferry trip to Oceana, sir." Ingles turned around to glare at Harm as if he had something to do with it. Harm shrugged his shoulders – he didn't.

"All right…Commander Rabb, get suited up. I presume you want Skates for your RIO?" As Harm nodded, Captain Ingles looked as though he was about to endure another headache. "I hope to hell the vice-admiral doesn't chew my ass off…for allowing you to do this. Lieutenant Commander, go get Lieutenant Hawkes, tell her to go suit up…and meet Commander Rabb in the ready room, she's going on a little trip. And get her to get the up-to-date METREP. I want to know the outlook on that storm that's inbound. If we get Commander Rabb aloft inside of two hours, there may be a chance that they can outrun the storm."

"Yes, sir!" the LCDR barked and disappeared just as fast as he had appeared.

 _ **Ready Room, USS Patrick Henry**_

"So, Skates, ready to go flying?" Harm met up with the short fireplug of a female RIO.

"Of course, sir." Lieutenant Beth "Skates" Hawkes grinned. "Any day's a good day to go flying."

As a crew they had to go to Ops and file a flight plan as they would be flying over FAA airspace in conjunction with airliners and other airborne aircraft. All of that took time; however Captain Ingles was as good as his word. Harm and Skates were airborne inside of two hours. "Hook your mask on…this is gonna be a bumpy ride…" Harm advised as he noticed the huge squall-line to the east as they streaked across the sky westbound. Harm pointed the F-14's nose southwest towards the coast all the while nervously watching the clouds rolling in.

"Are we gonna make it, Hammer?" Skates asked nervously, her own eyes, visible underneath the visor housing and above the top of her oxygen mask, scanning the squall line as it moved ominously westward.

"No worries, Skates. We're ten minutes from Oceana at our airspeed." Harm grinned, as the wind buffeted the Tomcat sideways. "We're going to have a nasty forty-five degree angle cross-wind coming into land though on two-three left…" he remarked.

"You seem to be on fire to head back to JAG, Hammer."

"Just a wedding I gotta be at…" Harm replied as he banked the F-14 to align the Tomcat with the coast line coming up. Five more minutes and they'd be wheels down at Oceana: another uneventful flight home from carquals. "A friend's getting married…and she wanted me to be there…"

"Geez, Hammer, from the sounds of it, it almost seemed like your wedding you were heading in for…" Skates joked.

"She's a bit nervous…" Harm said, not believing a word of what he said and Skates knew it. The silence after his comment made him think of what he had said to her not three days earlier, " _If you need me there to make it work, then maybe you should reconsider who you're marrying._ " Mac hadn't appreciated that comment but Harm was sick and tired of being used as an emotional yo-yo subject to Mac's whims.

"Oceana in sight." Skates changed the subject as the former Apollo Soucek field came into view. Radioing the tower, he was cleared for final approach. Manually cranking back the wings, Harm snapped the F-14B+ Tomcat into a sharp break over the field as he set up for landing. Not more than a minute later, the main mounts of the F-14B+ were chirping on asphalt.

As they parked the Tomcat in the parking spot, Harm looked over to see an individual with vice-admiral's stripes on his USN service blues standing stock still at the edge of the flight line. He cringed as he realized exactly how hot the verbal blast that was going to come down on his head because that vice-admiral did not look the slightest bit amused.

"Hey…Hammer, you expecting somebody?" Skates asked ingenuously, "That admiral looks really pissed."

As Harm undid his flight helmet, his oxygen mask, unbuckled from his ejection seat and raised the canopy, he saw the vice-admiral stride forward towards the F-14B+ Tomcat. As the vice-admiral came to a halt in front of the F-14, he stood stone silent, until Skates' and Harm's feet touched tarmac. "I presume you had fun during carquals?" the admiral's voice was dripping sarcasm.

"Yes, sir." Harm snapped to attention in front of the admiral as did Skates.

"And I presume the CO of the Patrick Henry was doing just fine?" the admiral continued, his tone still sarcastic.

"Yes, sir…Captain Tobias Ingles is doing great, sir. He sends his regards…" Harm said, still locked up tight.

"And just where are Lieutenant Commanders Terry Crenshaw and Barry Simpkins? Might I ask?" the vice-admiral glowered, his tone dripping acid. "The crew who was supposed to be doing the ferry trip?"

"Sir, they're in sickbay aboard the Patrick Henry, sir. They came down with the flu."

"You're not feeding me a line, are you, Commander?" the vice-admiral said disbelievingly.

"No, sir."

"How the hell did you convince Ingles to allow you to do this? Hammer!" the admiral growled. "Your famous poor puppy-dog look again?"

"No, sir. My _I'm just an innocent Animal_ … expression, sir…" Harm cracked a grin. "Learned it from you, sir, on the Seahawk, sir."

"You son of a bitch!" Animal snarled grumpily then laughed. "You're a sneaky shyster…you know that?"

"That's what I call him, sir." Skates chimed in.

"Damned lawyers. You'd do best to steer clear of those lawyer-types, Lieutenant." The vice-admiral advised Skates who laughed.

"Sir, question?" Harm asked, a cunning smile creeping over his face.

"What is it? Rabb…" Animal looked sour.

"Aren't you married to a lawyer type?" Harm asked smugly as Animal smacked himself in the forehead.

"Shit!" Animal muttered. "Nothing slips by you, does it, Rabb…" Harm ignored the facetious comment.

"Sir, so what brings you up to Oceana?" Harm asked.

"Just nosing around, giving the junior officers fits." Animal retorted. "It's like a morgue down in Second Fleet; I figured I'd get hands on with the command. Reading reports all day will just drive me bat-shit insane; not that Lieutenant Commander Burrows doesn't already." Harm grinned at that. Harm knew Lieutenant Commander Phil "Metalman" Burrows was completely dedicated…to driving Animal completely and utterly insane. The things he got away with would have thrown any lesser officer in the brig and processed out. Metalman was irreverent and obnoxious and most other officers of Animal's rank wondered why Animal put up with Metalman – they saw him as just another loudmouth officer in the vein of the former Lieutenant Andrew "X-man" Buxton. But unlike X-man, Metalman knew his limitations and although his skills were vastly greater than X-man's, Metalman knew when to keep his ego in check. Mouthy though he was, he knew how to negotiate the US Navy's structure. And Animal tolerated him, in fact, it could be said that Animal liked the young officer and the fact that he didn't cowtow to Animal very often except in formal occasions. Moreover the Chief of Naval Operations figured that Animal saw in the young Lieutenant Commander a version of himself in terms of skill and told BuPERS to keep Metalman in Animal's command. Metalman was up for O-5 soon and most people unknowing of Metalman's naval guru, thought that it wasn't going to be a shoe-in. But with Animal protecting Metalman, Harm knew that it wouldn't be long before Metalman was going to be wearing silver oak-leaves.

 _ **JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA 1700hrs (same day)**_

"Commander, it's good to see you again. It's been a long time." RADM AJ Chegwidden extended his hand to shake the shapely hand of a blonde Commander, her JAG staff insignia above three full gold stripes.

"It's definitely been a while, sir." Commander Meg Austin grinned. "But it's great to be back, sir."

"Now, I'm sure that the majority of the things you were doing were black; considering you were with Naval Systems Command for three years and Naval Intelligence two years prior to that." AJ began.

"Yes, sir. A lot of what I did would be considered black ops and I'm not at liberty to disclose that information."

"Understood, Commander Austin. Again, it's good to see you back here. Use today to get settled in and we'll apportion cases on Monday."

"Thank you, sir." Upon being dismissed, she walked out into the bullpen and was instantly mobbed by people who remembered her. One man in a civilian suit stood off to the side and watched her for a long moment then approached.

"G'day. Commander Austin, I presume." He extended a hand – the woman seemed likeable and owing to the number of the JAG staff approaching her and welcoming her, she was evidently someone that everybody at JAG respected. "Name's Mic Brumby." He said as Meg Austin shook his hand. "Formerly Royal Australian Navy. Reserved my commission to come to America and be with my fiancée."

"…and who might that be, Mr. Brumby." Meg asked.

"Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mackenzie. Marine Corps." Mic grinned easily, much like Harm. He seemed a likeable fellow. "Knew as soon as I met her, that it was a fair dinkum thing, at least on my end."

"Well…that's good…I think…" Meg replied looking at the Australian with a practiced eye from years of intelligence work. She wasn't sure about the slang term _fair dinkum_ , but at least he seemed honestly interested in his fiancée.

"Well, I'm sure that you'll be glad to meet up with your former partner. Commander Rabb's wagged off to play with his jets for a few days, but he should be back shortly…in time for the wedding. Mac's asked him to be there…" It didn't sound as though Brumby was happy about that. Evidently there was some tension between the two men.

Mic was thanking his lucky stars that Commander Austin had returned to JAG. From what he'd heard from Bud Roberts was that Rabb and Commander Austin were close. If she were able to get Rabb's attention off Sarah, then Mic could marry Sarah in peace and then perhaps Commander Austin would snare Rabb, then they could live happily ever after.

"Well, it was good to meet you, Commander Austin. I'll probably be seeing you around the office…" Mic stated as he turned to see Mac staring coldly at Commander Austin.

"Good to meet you too…" Meg replied as she shrugged her shoulders and headed off to find her office.

 _ **JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA, 0700hrs (next day)**_

Harm had quietly made his way to the boardroom where the admiral and the rest of the legal staff would be having their early morning meeting scheduled at 0730 bypassing his office, having grabbed his cup of coffee on the way into work. He'd wanted to sidestep the pre-wedding hoopla in the office, especially since having to deal with Mac was one of the things that he wanted to avoid. What he did not expect to see was a face from the past which was the first thing that hit his eyes when he opened the door to the boardroom.

She looked up at him with a slight smile lingering on her face, a faint ghost of the smiles he used to remember. Her hairstyle too was different, shorter and cropped in a long bob that was progressively longer towards her face, but her hair was still blonde and one couldn't mistake those twinkling blue eyes. His eyes travelled towards the sleeves of her service blues – three gold stripes of a full "silver oak leaf" commander, equal in rank to him and to Mac – a lieutenant colonel in the Marines. "Hiya, Harm…" she grinned patting the empty seat beside her as permission to sit down beside him. "Get a load off your feet and come on and sit down. I suspect the meeting will be starting shortly if I remember the admiral's timetable correctly."

"Meg?" he stammered as he forced his feet to remember how to be in motion and slowly moved towards her offered seat. Placing his briefcase to the side of his chair he sat down beside Meg and turned to her. "So…we have a lot to catch up on…" he said softly as he looked over at Meg with a questioning gaze.

"There's a lot I can tell you, but there's also a lot that I can't, Harm…and trust me on this. The stuff I can't tell you is black." She said sternly hoping that Harm would catch on to the hint and not press her on the information that she couldn't disclose. "All I can say is that I spent a few years with NAVINTEL and with Naval Systems Command – all extremely hush-hush…" Harm knew the ropes and he didn't press for information. All he cared about was that she was back and hopefully permanently.

Looking up when the door opened he noticed another officer coming in. She was short, under five feet at four feet ten inches tall with auburn hair and blue eyes; a wedding ring on her left hand and a smile on her face as she strode over to Harm. "I just got tapped for judiciary." She grinned. "The admiral said I'm a shoe-in for my fourth ring when the next O-6 boards meet…" then laughed as Harm raised his eyebrows to his hairline.

"I'm sure Animal's going to like that…" Harm responded and then realizing that Meg had absolutely no idea who the officer was that he was referring to, "My mentor was Toshio Nakamura at Reserve Air Group when I transitioned into the F-14 Tomcat. He's now a vice-admiral. This officer is Commander Liandra Gracen-Nakamura; his wife. They met when he visited JAG just after he got his O-6. They hit it off like cats and dogs." He grinned seeing Lia's arch expression.

"We did not…" Lia objected, her tone one of sheer pique. "We didn't kill each other…"

"At…least…they didn't. It was a near thing…" Harm assured Meg with a conspiratorial wink, "Office bets were that the two of them couldn't stand each other. I was in for five hundred." Harm told Meg who grinned. "Worst bet I ever made. I'm now five hundred bucks out of pocket." He said, his expression pitiable. "That was food money for two weeks."

"Well, that oughta teach you to bet money…" Meg smirked at Lia, the two of them finding mutual friendship in teasing Harm. "I betcha starvation rations taught you never to bet against a sure thing…" The two women laughed at Harm's expression of _why me_? Lia had just found a new ally. Harm inwardly cringed – the world was going to end with the two of them in cahoots.

The door opened yet again to bring in Lieutenant Singer, Lieutenant Bud Roberts and Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mackenzie. Before the door even had a chance to shut, both Commander Imes and Commander Alan Mattoni came in the door…seeing the few seats available to them, they all trooped around the table and picked a spot. Mackenzie sat down directly across from Harm on the opposite side of the table fingering her ring visibly causing Harm to stiffen and become subdued. Meg noticed this and silently thought that Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie was issuing a challenge to her.

"Lia…" Mac said. "I've got your invitation for both you and your husband." She opened her briefcase and slid an ivory envelope across." The wedding rehearsal was for the following day and the wedding the day after.

"Thanks…" Lia said, her smile not reaching her eyes, noting just how much this was hurting Harm. From the vantage point of one with nothing invested in the resolution of unrequited love, she could see objectively that Harm pining over Sarah Mackenzie was an exercise in downright stupidity. Lia had throughout the time that _Mac_ had joined the office seen that Mackenzie wanted nothing but to jerk Harm around like a puppet on a string and Harm was a puppet, because he danced to everything Mac wanted. She'd heard from Harm just what it was like to be a bystander during that time in Sydney, Australia, when Mac had nearly missed the boarding call for the plane because she and that Australian exchange officer were too busy locking lips. If it was her in Harm's shoes, Lia thought, she would have turned around and kept walking. _Friendship ring; my ass_ …it was nothing more than a flagrant smack in the face to someone that Mac felt that she could keep tied to her as an escape route.

"ATTENTION ON DECK!" Mattoni's voice cracked like a whip through the silent office as officers jumped to their feet as the admiral walked in.

 _ **JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA, 1200hrs**_

Meg looked up to see Harm standing by her office door. "So…what's up?" she asked casually.

"Just wondering if you had managed to get something to eat yet?" Harm asked equally unceremoniously. "…because I'm starving…and wondered if you wanted to go get something to eat?"

"I'm sure I could be enticed…" Meg replied as she shoved the FOIA requests that she was working on until she could get her teeth into some cases on Monday – everything was shelved in favor of the damned _Sarah Mackenzie wedding_. Everybody in the office was going…except for her since she was a latecomer to the office.

"G'day…Rabb…Commander Austin…" Mic Brumby poked his head in the door. "Commander Austin, I wanted to extend you an invitation…" Mic stated as he extended a hand with an ivory envelope – a wedding invitation. "I apologize for my fiancee's frigid welcome. You're welcome to bring a plus one." He grinned. "How are you, Commander Rabb…had fun playing with the jets?"

"Not too bad…was a nice little diversion…" Harm slightly stiffened. He still wasn't too friendly with the Australian who he felt had horned in on his relationship with Mac.

"Well…sorry to have to run, I've got a case involving a dole bludger who thinks the government is shortin' his monthly stipend. Good to see you again, Commander Austin…Rabb…" He turned and headed off towards Mac's office "…got to go catch Sarah before she finds her own way out of here for lunch."

"Well, I'll be…" Harm raised his eyebrows.

"…a monkey's uncle?" Meg finished Harm's sentence. "He seems like a nice enough guy…"

"…a dole bludger?" Harm queried unsure of the Australian slang. Meg shrugged. "Well…let's go get something to eat…" Harm said, "…before my brain explodes…trying to make sense of that down-under lingo."

Meg stood up and smiled. "Sounds like a perfect idea."


	2. Don't Ever Use Your Husband's Three-Star

**queenbee1711:** Great start to this story. I can't wait to see what mischief is in the works! Harm stop pining for Mac and move on with meg! Oh but Mac needs to suffer for her treatment of harm of course!

 _Oh…Mac will suffer… ~evil giggles~_

 **Guest:** :I see you're setting up for sort of a "slow burn" Harm/Meg romance. Looking forward to it-just please don't make it take Meg being critically injured for Harm to realize his feelings!

" _Meg critically injured?" Hmmmm…ideas, ideas. ~evil laughter~ But yeah, this story will be a lengthier chapter story than the other one._

 **Teddy0709:** I've read a few story's of yours. Your writing stil is really amazing. You often say that your not as good an author as byrhthelm or VIDZ but in my opinion you are. Your OC is one of the best I've read about with a good creative backstory. So let's see what you're doing with this story. I'm looking forward to the next chapter. Lg Teddy

 _Thank you. I just keep trying to up my personal bar a little more each story – sometimes I hit, sometimes I miss. And I do have to warn you: I write slow… ~grin~ …sometimes the muse doesn't like to cooperate with me and I have to beat it into submission._

 _JAG Trivia Question: Does anyone remember the first time "_ _ **Ho's Organic Noodles**_ _" was mentioned in a canon JAG episode? Just wondering._

* * *

 _ **JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA, Mess Deck 1207hrs**_

Harm guided Meg over to a table; each carrying their own trays. The meal of the day was lasagna – Meg charming the Culinary Specialist 3rd class into giving her a heaping plateful – Harm often wondered how Meg could keep her figure with that kind of appetite. The dessert on another plate was a bran muffin.

Harm eschewing anything with meat on it, decided to get an egg sandwich along with a cup of coffee, passing on the dessert. Meg laid her tray on the table, smiling appreciatively at Harm as he put his tray on the table and pulled out Meg's chair so she could seat herself on it. Meg lifted her fork and eagerly started attacking the lasagna.

"What?" she said after she noted Harm raising an eyebrow. "I'm hungry…" she explained, a little peevishly after hearing Harm chuckle. She gave him an angry kitten glare that just about caused Harm to laugh his head off which would have caused other officers to look over in amusement, but he somehow managed to squelch it down with some difficulty. She settled into finishing her lasagna with a rather irritable "hmmmph!" which caused Harm to cover a paroxysm of laughter with his hand over his mouth prompting a disgusted sounding "shut up…" without the 'sir' as they were of equal rank.

"It's good that you're back here…" Harm said, his laughter subsiding to a smile. Meg raised an eyebrow. "So…aside from the confidential stuff that you can't tell me; what were you doing over the past few years?"

"Mostly working…" Meg stated, shaking her head. "There wasn't much time for a personal life. Not that I was interested in pursuing anybody. So I went to work, came home and went to bed. Guess you could say that it was a pretty sad life. But you sure got through some pretty awesome stuff, didn't you? Two DFCs. Wow."

"Well, the first was for…"

"Getting your dad's former wingman, now CAG aboard the carrier after he got winged by a 30mm anti-aircraft battery; yeah, you told me about that one, but I didn't hear the one about the second." Meg asked. "So what about it? Do I get to hear about that one from the horse's mouth?"

"Well…it was a dark n' stormy night…" Harm had an absolutely amusing grin on his face. "Me n' Skates…" he paused melodramatically, waggling his eyebrows. "We were flying…" he paused for a long moment, silently daring Meg to make an _obviously_ comment.

"Get on with it…" Meg sputtered, trying to contain her laughter. Harm looked at her peevishly at being interrupted.

"Well…actually…It was Tuna n' me…that were flying. Skates, my RIO and Archie, Tuna's backseater were punching switches in the back. We were flying over Serb airspace…when the night sky suddenly lit up like a bunch of roman candles…" Harm said matter-of-factly, but deep down there was a hint of deep-seated pride in the tone of his voice. "I was certain that one of those 30mm bullets had my name on it. Skates wasn't too happy about the situation either." Meg thought that was probably the biggest understatement of the year – if it was her she'd be screaming. "It looked like the fourth of July out there. 30mm tracers like fireflies going all around the canopy. I was surprised when I got out of the aircraft once we recovered onboard. Not a hole in the aircraft, but I digress…" he paused a moment while he sipped his cup of coffee. "Well…about thirty seconds into the run, Tuna became a bullet-magnet and he caught a 30mm golden BB in the right engine which started smoking. He wanted me to let him eject over Indian country, but I told him…hell no. The Serbs butchered people who fell into their hands and I wasn't going to let him fall into those maniacs' clutches. So…" he paused again and took another sip of his cup of coffee. "I told him to lower his hook and I pushed him out to feet wet past the coast and into the Adriatic where he was able to punch out and he was picked up by the rescue helo."

"How'd you push him?" Meg asked rather confused.

"Rested his tailhook right on my windshield. Maintained 300 knots; got Tuna to hold a steady heading and I pushed him all the way over what I found out later were the Dinaric Alps."

Meg paled. She realized just how dangerous resting a hundred pound tail hook on one's windshield was when attached at the other end of it was a forty four thousand pound weight. The slightest miscalculation would put that tail hook like a javelin through one's chest. "God, Harm, you could have been killed."

"It was a close call…the wind-shield fractured…but it held." Harm grinned back at Meg with his _I can do anything_ flyboy grin.

Meg shook her head in awed disbelief and muttered… "And that only rated a DFC?"

Harm just laughed and stated to Meg that "...well, par for the course..." He paused for a long moment as he looked out the window of the cafeteria. Then he took a long look at Meg and said "It doesn't really matter. I'm alive and that's all that counts." There was a long quiet silence as they ate, each processing how the other reacted to their presence. When the silence became too uncomfortable Harm queried Meg: "Admiral Morris is going to throw a major shit fit with the judiciary backlog. We're so behind on our caseload that I don't think we can dig ourselves out with a backhoe."

"That bad, huh?" Meg asked, her eyes twinkling with amusement as she processed the caseload scoop that Harm had just dropped on her. Harm nodded, shuddering…as they both got up and headed over with trays in hand to empty the contents of the said trays into the garbage; the dishes that weren't disposable were neatly stacked on the dirty dishes rack, ready to be taken by an able CS3 to the back to get washed for the next round of eaters. Looking at her watch, Meg noted. "I think it's time for us to be heading back to the office." Harm agreed as they exited the mess deck and headed back to their office.

 _ **JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA, 1305hrs**_

As Harm and Meg walked through the double doors of the JAG Headquarters, they were greeted perfunctorily by Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie; her demeanor about as welcoming as a blizzard in Antarctica. Her frosty bearing didn't go un-noticed by Harm who raised an eyebrow at Mac who just ignored him. The two Navy commanders just walked past the Marine Lieutenant Colonel who bristled at a slight only she perceived.

Harm wasn't sure why Mac was so hostile to Meg. Meg was a newcomer to the office and besides they were of equal rank. As far as Harm knew they were conducting themselves in a manner professionally but as former partners in investigations, Harm and Meg were expected to maintain a close partnership. In the past it had remained strictly superior-to-subordinate, but as they were both of equivalent rank, the friendship part of the partnership would be able to grow. But Harm knew that the Mac would not see it that way. He had just caught the corner of Mac's glance towards Meg and he swore that he saw a tinge of green. And that confused him. Wasn't she getting married to Brumby on the weekend? So why would she have any negative feelings towards Meg? After all…it wasn't any of Mac's business who he hung around with. With the ring on her finger, she had made her choice absolutely clear that she chose Brumby over him so as far as Harm was concerned; he figured that he was absolutely free and clear with whoever he chose to be with. And Harm was done being Sarah Mackenzie's dope-on-a-rope.

Meg grinned, "I'd better play catch-up on getting my office organized or I won't be able to figure out what the heck's what." She said as she disappeared into her office. "I'll hook up with you later and we can maybe talk over dinner or something…"

"Sure...that's a great idea…" Harm said…as the door closed.

"Back to the blondes…" Mac's voice startled him as it was right beside him. "First the shrink, then a short fling with the Video Princess…and now you're chasing the newcomer to the office?"

Harm looked irritated. "Just what's your problem, Mac?" he stared directly in Mac's eyes, leaving her nonplussed for a moment. "…and what business is it of yours who I express interest in? Last I recall, you're getting married this weekend."

At the reminder of the impending nuptials, Sarah Mackenzie became subdued, almost as if she didn't want to remind herself of the fact that she would as of Saturday evening, be Mrs. Sarah Brumby. In fact the deflating reminder of her marriage on the weekend caused her to fail to see Harm turning away from her, entering his own office and shutting the door. She whirled around and stomped back to her own office, barely restraining herself from slamming the door.

Of course one Commander Liandra Nakamura didn't fail to notice that and her notice of the situation caused her to head over to Harm's office. Harm heard the door open and then shut as he looked up. "I thought she was getting married? Ain't she supposed to be happy about it?" Lia asked acidly as she dropped unasked into a chair in front of his desk.

"Lia, I don't want to talk about it." Harm replied, his voice tired and beaten: he'd gone around and around with Mac for far too long and he was just about sick of it. If she wanted Mic Brumby, then all the more power to her. Harm wasn't going to give a damn about it any longer.

"Hey, I know you like Meg. She'd be good for you." Lia grinned evilly as she looked over at Harm who gritted his teeth knowing that Lia was percolating something that would drive him absolutely nuts.

"Are you advocating fraternization with a co-worker? Commander?" Harm asked, his voice dropping several degrees.

"Nope…" Lia said all-too innocently as she looked up at the ceiling. "Nothing of the sort. However if you were interested, hypothetically, of course. My husband could work something out. Y'know… Just tossing that out there…there are fleet JAG positions out there…that means that you'd be working under a different chain of command…" she winked at him. "…not that you'd be fraternizing or anything of the sort…just hypothetically…" She heaved herself out the chair and moved towards the door. "Just something to think about…" winked again at him and ushered herself out the door, shutting it behind her.

Harm groaned, he felt the beginnings of a pressure headache coming on. Damn Lia!

 _ **United States Second Fleet Headquarters. Naval Station Norfolk, Norfolk, VA 1329hrs**_

"Sir, telephone call for you from JAG, sir…says she's your wife." Animal's yeoman, Command Master Chief Petty Officer Leon Trebalos said as Animal walked by. Reversing course, Animal headed back to the office saying over his shoulder.

"OK…transfer it to my office, Command Master Chief." He went back into his office and shut the door. Picking up the ringing phone he growled. "Vice-Admiral Nakamura!"

"Hi…" Lia's bright merry greeting told Animal that his dearly beloved wife was thinking up something. It was probably time to go to red-alert and secure all hatches. Animal rolled his eyes wondering just what sort of shit-storm was going to blow up. "Guess who transferred into the office today?" she asked all too cheerfully. When Animal refused to rise to the bait, Lia continued. "Harm's old partner from back when the office was still at the Navy Yard and not at Falls Church."

Animal's response was dryly sarcastic… "Yes…and that involves me…why?"

"I think Harm likes her…" Animal's eyebrows went up.

"O…K…" Animal said shortly. "That could be frat regs…" he ventured. "But you'd know more about that than me."

"Well…I offered him a potential solution…" _**Mayday…mayday…mayday**_ … Animal's internal alarm bells started going off as Animal started to feel a pressure headache coming on. Damn Lia! _You didn't!_ "…one that could potentially mean a transfer…" _Oh…no…you didn't._ "You might receive a call…maybe in the next couple of days. Just giving you a heads up…" A mental submarine dive alarm went off in his head. Oh..SHIT! "Love you, sweetheart. I'll see you tonight…" ~click~ Animal groaned…thumping his forehead off the desk. Did he even have room for a desk-jockey – hell he was flying a desk now too, but in Second Fleet, the positions were tailored to those who were moving up in the ranks. If he stuck Rabb into a Fleet JAG position, he'd be stuck in the same damned chain of command, same as if he had stayed at JAG Headquarters. But did he have a line position open that an over-the-hill aviator could hop into? _Thanks for the bloody headache, Lia._ Animal thought to himself. _What the hell did she think he was; a match-maker?_ He reached for the phone and dialed a number. When the person on the other end of the dialed number picked up, Animal growled. "Captain, do we have a slot in COMSTRKGRUFOUR ops for an O-5 ex-aviator that could be stationed in Norfolk?"

"Uh, sir?" Captain Alan "Scuzz" Renquist queried; he sounded confused.

"Goddamnit, Scuzz…find me someplace where I can stick a soon-to-be ex-JAG in the Second Fleet somewhere…that I can stick him in headquarters and have him off the damned flight-line except during carquals." Animal said, irritated.

"Yes, sir. I'll check back with you in an hour, sir, to let you know what I've found."

"Thanks, Scuzz."

"Don't mention it, sir."

Animal looked up to see a grinning RDML Jim "Scooter" Willis, the aforementioned COMSTRKGRUFOUR one-star who beamed at him. "Y'know…if you're talking about that ex-jet jockey by the last name of Rabb, I might be able to fit him in somewhere. COMSTRKGRUFOUR needs a shore liaison with headquarters, it may involve him flying out for investigations every so often, but I think we can fit him in…"

Animal raised his eyebrow disbelieving what Scoot was telling him. "Scooter, you aren't just shitting me with a made-up position…now, are you?"

Scooter grinned widely. "Ah…y'know…we've needed a HQ-assigned liaison officer with legal knowledge for quite some time now…" he said convincingly. "I'll draw up a list of duties and responsibilities along with a job description and we'll swing it to the CNO. He'll go for it when we see we have a face in mind."

"So basically, he's under your command and jointly under my command?" Animal asked wondering just how Lia and Scooter had managed to handle him just now.

"Yep." Scooter said. "So we'd better draw up a transfer order so we can get his heinie to Norfolk."

"Chegwidden's going to shit." Animal muttered. The rear-admiral was going to blow a gasket. As far as Animal knew, JAG was a dead end. If Harm wanted anything more than two stars (maybe three at the most), he had to transfer to a line billet. "Scooter, make sure you call Scuzz back and let him know you've got a solution, otherwise, he's going to be climbing walls for the next sixteen hours…" He paused for a moment. "How fast can you draw this up?"

"Already done…I just have to print it out. I've been percolating this idea for the past six months in time for the new Navy Budget in three months. Your wife's call just accelerated the time-table. I want to get him now and get him in place so that the funding will be accessible when the new budget hits the printers."

Animal nodded. That was a good plan on Scooter's part. Jam in a new position with a wedge and apologize for it later. "I can give you access to a network and if you can print it up…we can fax it to CNO and get his approval inside of an hour." He let out an evil chuckle in which Scooter joined in.

"Fair enough, but I won't need network access, I've got it here on my laptop, all I need is a printer cable and I'll hook it up and print it out. Then we can fax it to the CNO and see what he has to say."

 _ **United States Second Fleet Headquarters. Naval Station Norfolk, Norfolk, VA 1429hrs.**_

"So, you say that COMSTRKGRUFOUR needs this position filled in 72 hrs?" CNO asked, the tone of his voice rather amazed at the detailed information on the job description of the Carrier Strike Group Legal/Operations Liaison. His voice was tinny over the speaker-phone. "Animal, I can do it for you. And you need BuPERS to fax you a copy of the transfer orders? I can have transfer orders PCS drawn up for you within the hour and we'll fax it over to the Judge Advocate as well. You do know that you're going to make AJ rip out whatever hair he has left, right?"

Animal and Scooter looked at each other…and grinned. Animal couldn't resist letting out an evil chuckle. "I'm counting on it."

"You know that's dirty pool? You have three-stars compared to AJ's two. It's like giving him an order rather than a nicely worded request." CNO said knowing perfectly well that Animal was yanking Rabb out at a bad time for the JAG office. "JAG's back-logged with cases. AJ's gonna have a fit. Now he's going to have to hunt for the best legal minds in the different RLSOs and get two more attorneys in."

"Isn't my taking Rabb only one?" Animal asked.

"Your wife's getting tagged for judiciary. Animal. She's been hooked by Stiles into going over to the dark side. She's going to be wielding the gavel now instead of looking for loopholes. Also means that she won't have to do any more out-of-town investigations."

"Really?" Animal was amazed that Lia was on tap after three years as a O-5 would end up getting tapped for judiciary.

"Also being considered for deep-select." CNO said, leaving unspoken the fact that deep-selection meant that she would get her fourth ring early. "Not bad for a JAG." He commented.

"I agree…" Animal replied.

 _ **JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA, 1625hrs**_

Legalman First Class Jason Tiner looked warily at the fax as if it were a rattlesnake that was coiled in strike position. He had read it once through, then again…then dropped the fax on his own desk like it was anathema. He reached out a hand to pick it back up then pulled his hand back again before he could touch the paper. The admiral was going to go through the roof. Tiner knew just exactly how time-constrained and backlogged the cases were. He administrated the legalmen who were filing papers and making sure all the paperwork was in order on the cases so that the lawyers could rush around with the courtroom dealings. Now this transfer order that just came in was going to throw the monkey wrench of all monkey wrenches into the gears that were previously gummed up and remained so. The admiral had already had a bad day since three cases were behind in terms of statutory limitations of custody. If they couldn't get those cases to court within a reasonable amount of time, in other words, in the next week, the cases would be removed from the docket and all charges dropped which would throw egg on the Judge Advocate General's face and RADM AJ Chegwidden would not take that well; not at all.

Tiner let out a big sigh. Why did it have to be him that had to bell the cat? He was going to get shred to pieces. Why couldn't this transfer order have come in when he was safely off to OCS? Gulping down an errant nervous butterfly that escaped his stomach into his trachea, he reached for the sheets of fax paper and squaring his shoulders headed for RADM Chegwidden's hideaway which was right across a carpeted floor. Raising his hand to knock on the door, he shuddered, swallowed briefly again and then rapped the door.

A low growl "ENTER!" emitted from behind the door.

"Sir." Tiner swallowed then continued. "These orders came in for Commander Rabb, sir." He extended his hand with the papers in them towards the admiral who reached up a hand to take them from him. Tiner retracted his hand after the admiral took the pages and assumed the position of attention, hoping to God that Chegwidden wouldn't rip his head off.

He let his eyes drift towards the admiral's countenance. What he saw there drained what blood was there left from his face. The admiral's lips were pursed tightly and his shoulders were stiffly braced; his jaw clenched and the admiral practically vibrated with held-in anger.

A gravelly sound emitted from the admiral's vocal cords which Tiner barely registered as "Dismissed!". When the order finally broke through Tiner's cocoon of fear, he chose that moment to break the position of attention; about-faced and fled. As he closed the door, the sound of a fist hitting the surface of the table emanated from the admiral's office.

 _ **JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA, 1635hrs**_

"RABB!" Rear Admiral Albert Jethro Chegwidden thundered as he stuck his head out of the anteroom leading to his office aiming his voice towards the closed door of Rabb's office. A few seconds later the door of Rabb's office opened and the hailed man appeared. "GET YOUR ASS IN MY OFFICE NOW!" the thunderous oration of the _request_ rattled the ceiling fixtures.

When Harm had entered the office, Chegwidden slammed the door behind him, then proceeded to pace around Harm, with the general demeanor of a tiger eyeing prey. He reached without looking back at the table picking a sheaf of papers off the desk. "You don't happen to know anything about THIS…" Harm jumped as Chegwidden punctuated the descriptive implying the sheaf of papers in a thunderous roar. "TRANSFER ORDER? DO YOU?!"

Harm's face fell. "No sir." He said. "I never made any request for a transfer at any stage, sir."

"So, Commander, why the hell am I holding a sheaf of papers detailing you to US Second Fleet HQ?" Chegwidden's glare could melt steel.

"Oh, shit…" Harm's mental marbles started running interconnecting circles occasionally smashing into each other in a paroxysm of fear. He only noticed that he had said that out loud when the admiral's glare mutated into a fearsome scowl that outshone whatever red-giant existed in the universe.

"Would you like to explain this?" the admiral snarled waving the papers in his face.

"Oh…no…Lia didn't…"

At that, the admiral slammed the papers back on the desk, stalked to the door and bellowed. "NAKAMURA! GET IN HERE!" When an equally petrified Commander Nakamura had presented herself in the office, he repeated the action in her face. "Can you explain this?"

"Sir?"

"Don't play dumb with me…Commander or you'll wish you hadn't!" snapped AJ as he paced around behind them. "Did you or did you not ask for a transfer from the Vice Admiral at Second Fleet?"

"Sir…I may have hinted that there could potentially be a transfer, but I didn't specify who, sir." which to some extent was the truth.

"Is that the absolute God's honest truth? Commander?" AJ snarled. "Do you know just how much of a piss-poor position this has put me in?" It was a rhetorical question and AJ didn't expect an answer. "Now I have to rip two lawyers out of RLSOs somewhere to make up for the amount of work that Commander Rabb here has completed. And on top of that, I just got a notification that you have just been tapped by Admiral Morris to round out his Judiciary next month. Which bloody well means that I need to find three lawyers to fill the damned spots that I need to make up for this transfer order and your hightailing it off to the bench!"

Lia winced. _Her and her big mouth_. And she didn't even know if Harm was going to even make a play for Meg yet. But the little devil balanced on her shoulder just whispered in her ear. " _but you've opened up the possibility_." She silently pitch-forked the little sonofabitch off her shoulder with a _shut up asshole!_

Meanwhile, Harm was thinking to himself. _I just got Meg back and now I lose her to a transfer order sending me to Norfolk. How the hell could this happen?_

"Well…" AJ breathed heavily as he squelched down his anger. "I can't argue my case against a three-star." He paused for a long moment glaring at Lia. "Your husband is countersigned on the transfer orders by RDML Jim Willis and his is countersigned by a four-star. So I'm outranked. Commander Rabb, you're going to US Second Fleet. Take the time to read up on your duties. The job description and transfer orders are in this sheaf of papers." Picking up a pen, he signed the transfer orders as being received and agreed upon. "And…Commander Nakamura…don't ever do this again. Do not use your husband's three stars to ever have him poach one of my officers ever again. If he wants my officers, tell him to come to me directly and tell me to my face that he's taking my officers. Do you understand, Commander?"

"Yes, sir!" Lia knew she had gotten off lightly.

AJ's voice was a low growl "DISMISSED!"

The two of them couldn't get out of the office quickly enough.


	3. Because Friends Protect Each Other

_**Guest:To be perfectly honest, that sounds like the sort of thing HARRIET SIMS would do if she had the connections. And if she did, Bud would rip her a new one for gaming the system to try and play match-maker. I hope Animal has the common sense to do the same.**_

 _Falls under "improper command influence", I think…_

* * *

 _ **Harm's Apartment, North of Union Station, Washington, DC**_. **1832hrs**

Harm sighed deeply as he turned onto the street his apartment was on. Following him was Meg. Having informed Mic that the plus one would be each other, to which Mic had wisecracked. "Well, good on ya, saves on the catering. Looking forward to seeing the both of you at the wedding." The irritating Aussie (at least to Harm) raised a thumbs up and winked at Harm. Harm had glared at the Aussie in slight irritation.

Harm had notified Meg; who was still in her office, after Lia and he had gotten out after getting raked over the coals that perhaps going to the wedding together would save them on gas. He also had let Meg know that he had moved to a different place from the row-home that he had lived in prior. He'd wanted to quit paying rent and move to a place of his own. It was a fixer-upper that he had managed to fix up to the point where it looked like a proper home with some resale value. He just didn't like the neighborhood.

Plus inviting Meg over would give them a chance to talk over old times as well as let her know about new developments in his career plans – _involuntary_ new developments would describe it more accurately. Considering that he had a fleet liaison position with the United States Second Fleet's COMSTRKGRUFOUR, he was in line for consideration for O-6 in the next go-around. _But I still wouldn't get my O-6 before Lia_ he thought to himself. He parked the car at the curb and paused for a moment as Meg pulled in behind him with her car.

They met in the street with a smile and a nudge of their elbows and Harm said to Meg. "Well, this is where I live now…"

"Nice neighborhood." Meg commented as she looked up and down the street, casually assessing the neighborhood enough to determine the relative safety of the place. It was filled with renovated warehouses that had been turned into apartments; attracting all manner of itinerant and other undesirables to the area.

"Yeah, I know…it's not the nicest place, neighborhood-wise and it's downright dangerous if you're walking alone at night…when you compare to my old place…but it's homey enough." Harm answered. "C'mon, let's get inside." The sun was just starting to touch the horizon on its way to closing out the day. Harm estimated the shadows were lengthening amidst the buildings that comprised the block his apartment building was in. It wouldn't be long before the undesirables would be coming out of the wood-work. And they would be better off inside. Harm didn't step out at night without his Beretta at his back. Putting his key in the main entrance door, unlocking the door, Harm pulled the door open to let Meg in, pulling the door closed behind him as she crossed the threshold. Making certain the door was shut and locked, he stated, "Don't mind the elevator, it's old and makes a god-awful noise." He pointed to a rather old-looking freight elevator.

Meg agreed only a few minutes later when she cringed at a rather rusty screech emitting from the gear-wheels that the suspension system of the elevator operated on. Looking over at Harm, she saw he had a grin on his face – one that spoke _I told you so_. When the clattering old freight elevator ground to a halt with several protesting metal moans that nearly sent Meg's heart into her throat, Harm lifted the horizontal clam-shell elevator door and the protective grate. Meg snidely commented. "I'd suggest you raise your life insurance premium to give your beneficiary a better accidental death benefit…" indicating the safety factor of the elevator they had just rode up on. *ouch* Harm didn't protest, he agreed with her but getting the strata to deal with fixing the elevator was like pulling teeth. Sometimes it wasn't worth the aggravation to bitch and complain.

When they had exited the freight elevator rather quickly, Harm strode the five steps to his door and inserted the key to his suite. Meg stood politely to the side inspecting the hallway. "Nice place you have here. Looks like one could make a movie from the fifties here with this ambiance. A film-noir." She observed as Harm managed to get the door open and then ushered her in. "So…who else lives here?" She inquired.

"No one, I have the whole floor…I just haven't got around to figure out what to do with the other suite." Harm replied. "Have you found a place yet?"

"No, I'm still living at the hotel." Meg indicated her housing status. She gestured to her figure…to indicate that her dress attire wasn't exactly in line to go to a wedding. "In fact my bags are still there, so all I have is my uniform with me right now. We probably need to go back to my hotel and get my things so that I can have a proper semiformal dress to wear to the wedding."

"The red dress?" Harm asked eagerly.

"Naw, I've got an electric blue and black floral print number that would go well with the wedding, not too formal and won't outshine the bride. There's wedding dress codes and frankly, outshining the bride is a faux pas that I don't intend to transgress." Meg replied.

"Well, why don't we put our things down and head back out in my car to go get your things?" Harm said referring to his Lexus RX300 which he had purchased after someone stole his Corvette – in fact, Harm's blood still boiled when he thought about his beloved cherry red '68 Corvette Stingray having been chopped up for parts on the black market.

"Well, don't you sound all hot n' eager…" smirked Meg. Harm loved it when Meg pulled out her ribald sense of humor. Some of the inadvertent lines that she'd used over the year that they'd spent investigating cases together were next to shocking from someone as innocent looking as Meg was. But Harm was willing to pull out all the guns in return.

"Hmmm…sounds like a plan…" Harm winked at her and turned his flyboy grin on, making Meg weak at the knees, but she sure as hell wasn't about to let that infuriating friend of hers know that grin was effective.

"Momma always said you keep doing that, your face may freeze like that." She shot back. "I'll let Aronofsky know that if that happens…they have a new Joker in town." Harm subsided…that one hurt. Meg could let loose some pretty good zingers. "You'd better go and get changed…I'll sit here in the living-room and wait." Her own imagination was sending mental images of Harm un-garbed and she needed some space to get control of her own hormones. "Go on…git!" Harm grinned back at her and headed off behind the glass block wall to get changed. Of course that didn't help Meg's imagination any as the glass block was only semi-translucent and a dark figure pretty much let her imagination fill in the blanks.

 _ **Animal & Lia's Home, Fredericksburg, VA 2032hrs**_

Lia paled when she saw Animal's countenance as he came through the door. He was not happy looking at all; his lips were set in a straight line and his bearing was stiff, it appeared as though a super-cell thunderhead looked more welcoming. "I need to talk to you…" was all he said. Without preamble he told her to sit down on the couch. When she complied, he continued stiffly using his command voice. "That call today could have gotten me in serious trouble under the UCMJ. The CNO defused the problem, but I could have gotten called on the carpet for _improper command influence_. Don't ever call for something like that again!" Animal said, his tone not tolerating any argument. "I don't want to lose my stars playing matchmaker for someone. That's a violation under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and I'm just glad that AJ didn't decide to go up the chain of command and enter a formal protest."

Lia was subdued – she knew that she had misstepped and she knew that it could have cost her husband his job. "I'm sorry, honey. I just wanted to make things easier on Harm so that he could have the relationship he deserves…"

"As much as I'd like to see him happy; I'm not prepared to do it at the cost of a career I worked damned hard for" Animal replied. "Just don't do it again! Do you understand, Commander?!" His voice cracked like a whip. Animal was not happy. After the dressing down from AJ, getting the third degree from her husband was even worse.

"Yes, sir!"

"I'm going to go take my uniform off. When I come back, I'll lose the vice-admiral…but I just needed you to understand the dangers of trying to help someone when they just need to smarten the hell up and open up. They also damned well need to take matters into their own hands and make their own moves, rather than have someone make the moves for them." He said dropping the stiff command bearing. "You understand the ramifications of meddling in matters that don't concern you as well as dragging family members into it; don't you?"

"Yes…" Lia was quiet. She knew that she had asked something of her husband that she shouldn't have done. She had only seen him like this a few times and that was prior to their marriage when he was still the captain at NAVINSGEN. She didn't know which felt worse, back then when all she thought was that he was a rule-following, ramrod-up-the-spine asshole or knowing that despite all the time that she had spent with him as his spouse; that inside there was still the rule-following officer who didn't brook any disobedience – and that she had done something to bring that back out.

Animal then nodded, as he turned to go into their bedroom to doff his uniform and change into some civvies.

 _ **Harm's Apartment, North of Union Station, Washington, DC**_. **2036hrs**

Harm had managed to finish lugging up one large suitcase and a carry-on. The rest of her possessions were still in shipment from her last duty station. Meg had taken the opportunity at the hotel to freshen up and switch into civvies. Then they had checked her out of the hotel and Harm had offered her his place to reside until such time as Meg was able to find herself some permanent housing. Grunting as he put the luggage down by his couch, he grinned, "So…did you manage to fit the airline's luggage weight restrictions on this piece of luggage?"

Meg raised an eyebrow that told him that she wasn't amused at the barb. She was tired and dinner was still a bare hope in her mind as it was past eight-thirty in the evening. "Any plans as far as eating is concerned?" She asked.

"I do have some grub in the fridge." Harm said. "but nothing with meat in it. Shall we order something?"

"Sounds like a plan." Meg responded, and her stomach agreed to Harm's amusement. "I'm not in the mood for rabbit food tonight."

"You sound like Mac." He said. "She eats a big dripping greasy burger every single day. It's a wonder she's still got that figure of hers and isn't a candidate for a heart-attack."

"Well, I'm a Texan. There's four main food groups for Texans, Harm, it's meat, chili, tequila and salt." She smirked at him smugly. "Meat for bones, chili for warmth and health, tequila to help your body rest, and salt because it's so damned hot down there, that you gotta rehydrate yourself with margaritas." She punctuated that with a winsome grin that made Harm's insides turn to jello.

So, Harm ordered Chinese and the order taker on the other end stated that the delivery time would be about forty five minutes. Unfortunately, this was Washington DC…and those times were stretched estimates. Considering how delivery was in DC, an order could take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half.

While they were waiting, Meg asked. "So…you told me that you were getting transferred from JAG to US Second Fleet. That was a surprise…finding out that you're leaving the day I get here. How'd that come about?"

"Yeah…" Harm noted as he look over at Meg. "It happened thanks to Lia…"

"What?" Meg was surprised and a little incensed. Was Lia so ruthless that she would turn around and sabotage another person's career for her own benefit, even if she was switching to a different branch of the Judge Advocate General?

"No, it was just inadvertent. She thought she was doing me a favor." Harm explained.

"How do you mean?" Meg was confused.

"She was in earlier today asking me a whole series of questions of why I was still pining after Mac…and then asked me if I was interested in a certain other person at JAG…"

Meg's heart sank. Who else could he be interested in at JAG other than Mac and that relationship was dead due to Mac marrying Brumby this coming weekend? "Oh…" she said shortly.

"She facilitated the transfer because she assumed I could have a relationship with that person…" Harm commented. "She committed a Harriet."

"A Harriet?" Meg sounded even more confused.

"Harriet is Lieutenant Bud Roberts' wife. She had this pipe-dream of me and Mac together and tried incessantly to get us together." Harm snorted. "Well, that dream got clipped when Brumby and Mac got together."

"Oh…so she was trying to help you…to get in a relationship with a certain JAG personnel member?" Meg asked.

"Yes, that's why I said Lia did a _Harriet_. She got royally raked over the coals by the admiral too. Turns out she turned to her husband to help facilitate that."

"That could be a court-martial offense for doing that. There is a statute in the UCMJ about undue command influence." Meg stated.

"Well…at least it gets me out of the JAG chain of command and I'm back in a line position." Harm stated. "…and I'll be working for a guy that I respect…"

"Even if he helped his wife do something underhanded to the admiral?" Meg looked at Harm with a wry grin – perhaps she had a chance at getting Harm to open his eyes. "She left him in a bad situation being short-staffed…and now I'm going to have to cover the shortfall at least until they get some more staff in." She looked over at Harm who just grinned.

"Well…I've been sitting here at HQ for over 6 years now; I think it's about time that I looked at other options." Harm looked pensive. "And the fact that US Second Fleet opened up a position for me will help my career. Animal has the ear of the CNO and that's a good situation to be in." He turned to Meg and asked, almost fearful of her answer. "We'll stay in contact this time, won't we?"

"Sure…Harm…" Meg said matter-of-factly – she knew that the chance of her getting transferred again before three years was negligible. "I'm at JAG for the foreseeable future as far as I know. I don't expect to get transferred the way I did back when we were originally partners. So at least I'll know you'll be at Norfolk and you know where I'll be…"

Harm, in some respects, was gratified to see that he and Meg had hit it off at the same level of friendship that they had previously had when he was a Lieutenant Commander and she was a Lieutenant JG. But now with their careers going off in separate direction, who knew which direction that friendship could go in. After being battered by Mac, he wasn't sure of how to approach a possible friendship that could potentially blossom into something else. He mentally slapped himself. This was taking it a bit too fast – who knew if Meg even wanted anything more than friendship; he'd already tried that angle with Mac and gotten slapped down for it so why take the chance of beating his already bruised heart worse than it already was.

 _ **North of Union Station, Washington, D.C., 2110hrs**_

Mac turned her Corvette into the street that she had been down many times before. She peered down the street to see the familiar Lexus RX300 parked by the side of the building. Mac knew that this was her last chance to set things right if she could…and stop Harm from getting back together with his former partner. Being seeing them sitting side by side at the morning meeting and then seeing them go off to lunch together made Mac want to explode. Mac didn't know why she was so jealous seeing the two of them together, but there was something in the air that warned Mac that she was very close to losing Harm. A warning sign went off in her head – usually there was a parking spot right behind Harm's car, but that was occupied by a blue 2000 Chevy Equinox that she wasn't familiar with but she had the nagging sensation that she'd seen it before.

She found a parking spot two spots forward of Harm's car and managed to get her Corvette parked but noted two vagrants haunting the entrance way to Harm's apartment complex. Pulling out her cell-phone she dialled the DC Metropolitan Police Department non-emergency line.

"Metropolitan Police Department, First District… How can I help you?"

"Hi, I'm Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mackenzie, I'd like to report some suspicious activity outside 121 K Street. I'm just here to visit a friend and I noticed two vagrants hanging around the entrance of the building. It looks as though they're waiting for someone and I have no idea if they're violent offenders or whether they're just people down on their luck."

"Well, ma'am. Are they harassing anyone? Or are they just standing out there?" The DC Precinct dispatcher asked.

"It appears that they're just standing out there, but I'm suspicious of their intent." Mac stated. "I'm a Marine, but I don't intend to engage them in hand to hand combat if they have ill-intent. Will you be sending down a car to find out what they're up to?"

"Ma'am…we've had two high profile burglaries, a break and enter, three domestics and a murder tonight. All in our district, ma'am. So our people are pretty tied up right now. I might be able to send you a car in about two hours after we clear what's already on tap at the moment. Right now, suspicious behaviour if it isn't resulting in personal injury or violence is low on our priority, ma'am."

"Fine…" Mac stated, "Thank you, any way." She hung up the cell-phone muttering under her breath. "That's a waste of a call…" Then ensuring that her Beretta was in her concealed carry holster, she stepped out of the car. As she strode up with purpose to the door, the one vagrant drunkenly said.

"hey, pretty lady…"

Mac looked at him. "I'm armed…better stay clear." She warned; her voice low and cautioning the man. Her hand hovered around her waistband warning the vagrant that he would quite potentially get shot if he came too close. Evidently it was the air of hostility surrounding her, but Mac managed to get inside the building unscathed.

There was only one other person in the hallway and that was the delivery man at Harm's door as she came out of the stairwell. Walking up to the door just as the door closed and the delivery man walked away, she sighed heavily and knocked on the door. "Just a minute!" She heard Harm's muffled voice behind the door as she waited, tapping her feet on the floor impatiently. Then she heard his footsteps come to the door, and the door opened a slight crack. "Mac?" This was strange, usually he'd open the door wide open to talk to her. It was as if he didn't want her to see inside his apartment.

"I needed to talk." Mac, in a few words, stated her intentions for being there.

"You got a wedding day after tomorrow" Harm said as he opened the door, "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be getting everything together?" Mac looked over his shoulder to see that new commander who had just in-processed a day earlier. Her heart sank as her irritation rose. Why the hell was it that every time she wanted to talk, he had a bimbo there with him? If it wasn't that Lieutenant Commander Jordan "Bimbo the Shrink" Parker, it was that irritating Commander Caitlin "Slut" Pike, or Renee "Stuck Up Video Princess" Peterson. And just when she needed to talk to him because she was getting cold feet because of the wedding, he was there with Commander Megan "Blondie Bimbo" Austin. Just when the hell was she going to get time to talk to him with nobody around so that she could weave her magic around him again, make him enthralled with her again and get him to get her out of this pickle that she had managed to get herself into. .

"I don't know if I can go through with this, Harm…" she said using her soft voice to entice him into pity for her…" and looked down at her heels trying to give off the impression of vulnerability to elicit a sympathetic response.

"Mac…I don't know what to tell you." Harm replied, more than a little irritated that his food would be getting cold. "…and I'm not the one you should be talking about this to. You should be talking to Brumby about this."

"But…" Mac protested. "I can't…"

"What…you can't tell him that you're getting cold feet?" Harm sounded incredulous. "Look, Mac, it's the right thing to do…if you can't go through with it…you need to talk to him…not me…"

"Why not?" Mac sounded petulant.

"Probably because it's not his worry…" Meg was at Harm's side in an instant. "It's between you and Mr. Brumby. When you put the ring on your finger tying you to Mic Brumby, Harm ceased to be your fall-guy." Meg snarled. "Or…were you just going to expect him to come back obediently to your side whenever you snapped your fingers?"

"And what business is it of yours?" Mac snapped back. "Why are you sticking your nose in to my relationship with Harm?"

"Because friends protect each other…and you've been doing nothing but hurting him!" Meg retorted viciously, sticking up for someone that she considered a friend. "That's what friends do. Harm doesn't need enemies if he has a _friend_ like you! I'm also his first partner at JAG and partners protect each other. I don't know what the hell you think you were doing, but it sure as hell wasn't protecting each other." She was fed up with that bitch of a Marine Lieutenant Colonel and was willing to give as good as she got. Meg was a patient person, but that Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie was nothing if not proficient at pissing Meg off. "By rights, he should be checking his back for stab wounds…" Score one for Austin, she thought as that bitch-Colonel winced. "Should he count how many of them were from YOU!" she pointed a finger directly in the face of Mac who debated silently whether she should snap that finger in two. "So don't ask Harm to clean up your messes. It's about time you started cleaning them up yourself!" And just so that Mac would turn nuclear, Meg looked up with an endearing smile at Harm, caressed him on the arm. "Harm, dear, our food's getting cold…"

Mac gritted her teeth so hard she almost thought one cracked.

"Oh…and we're not coming as the friends of the bride…day after tomorrow…" Meg aimed a final parting shot between the eyes. "We're coming as _friends of the groom_. Come, Harm, you haven't eaten since this afternoon…and the dinner's almost freezing. Chinese food reheated is disgusting. Good night, Lieutenant Colonel…" pulled Harm back from the door and shut the door in Mac's face.

Mac nearly screamed in rage as she heard the door lock being engaged as she turned from the door and stomped down the hallway. As she approached the door, she saw the two vagrants still by the door. Slamming the door open, narrowly missing one, she pulled her jacket back to show them the butt of her Beretta by her side. "MOVE IT!" She bellowed. "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY!" and stomped her way to her Corvette.

"What's up her ass?" asked one.

"All I was going to ask was if she had spare change…" said the other as they both winced hearing the door slam on the Corvette…hard.

 _ **Animal & Lia's Home, Fredericksburg, VA 2132hrs**_

Lia and Animal stood by the kitchen sink, one holding a kitchen towel while the other one washed the dishes. Lia had cooked Italian Chicken and Cheese, a mouth-watering mixture of chicken breasts breadcrumbs, butter, parsley, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, onion, and salt and pepper and melted mozzarella on top. Animal felt lucky that he had married a gourmet cook. But the baked on casserole dish would have to soak overnight before the caked on crud on the dish would be soft enough to get removed by a dishwasher cycle. He'd throw the casserole dish in the dishwasher in the morning.

"So…we ready for the rehearsal dinner tomorrow? Do you have to wear a rehearsal dinner dress as well?" Animal asked his wife.

"I've got a nice semiformal for the rehearsal dinner and one for the wedding itself. Neither of them being white. Only the bride is allowed to wear white." Liandra replied. "Have you got your dress whites and sword as well as a semi-formal suit?" She looked up at Animal and grinned. "Do you have a clean pair of shoulder-boards?" She asked, wondering if he had remembered to pick up a new pair.

"Yeah…I do…I picked a pair up from the PX. The last ones I had, Metalman spilled chocolate milk all over the service whites at the last wetdown. If it was alcohol, it would have been easier to get out, but it was milk…he's a teetotaler. Stained the gold thread pretty badly because you can't dry clean those things. So I had to pitch 'em. I should send that idiot the bill…" Animal grumbled irritably. "You know how much those shoulder-boards were? Damned near cost me a hundred bucks!"

"But he doesn't make as much as you…" Lia smirked.

"His fault…" Animal protested and he looked so much like a child with a toy taken away that Lia burst out laughing.

* * *

For high-flying aviation action - Check out "Where Eagles Fly" - a fic dealing with Harm's exploits on the Seahawk prior to his ramp-strike - yeah... Animal's there too...


	4. Rank Seniority

_**Animal & Lia's home, Fredericksburg, VA, Friday Morning, 0430 hrs EST**_

Animal stretched, yawning as he woke up and gazed over at his still slumbering wife. Leaning over her, he grinned and dropped a kiss on her cheek, his breath tickling her face. She just muttered a sleepy complaint, rolling over and going back to sleep. Looking at the calendar on the wall, he noted the day. He needed to do his half day at the office and then secure to head up to Annapolis. He wasn't comfortable around Academy types, with the exception of Rabb, Sturgis and Keeter. Rabb and Keeter he had made acquaintance of at Reserve Air Group, which trained naval aviators for active duty in the fleet. As their instructor, he was scary; at least to Keeter, namely because the two lieutenant JGs were not allowed a significant amount of rope. Animal was a stickler when it came to learning the ropes of how to fly and fight in the F-14 Tomcat and probably provided Jack Keeter with quite a few nightmares. When he showed up tomorrow with three stars on his shoulder-boards, he'd probably end up petrifying the big Texan; Animal smirked at the thought of Keeter's jaw dropping open and shattering on the floor.

Rabb was supposed to report to Animal's US Second Fleet; the following Monday after Mac's wedding to Brumby. He made a mental note to pick up his dress whites from the drycleaners. Considering that they would be utilizing a non-descript chapel for their wedding ceremony – Mac was not an ring-knocker (Naval Academy graduate).

Maneuvering himself out of the bed, he eased himself up out and onto his feet so that he could head for the washroom. Looking back towards the bed he was surprised to see Lia looking at him, with a smile on her face. "Up so soon?" was her soft inquiry.

"Yeah…have to get some work done before I have to secure at 1200 hrs. Have to drive to Norfolk, get some work done, then drive all the way to Falls Church from Norfolk. Then to the chapel." Animal responded.

Lia got up, tossed the blankets off and came around the end of the bed. Animal's eyes widened appreciatively. Lia's legs were bare; as was the rest of her. But he knew that unless he headed out on the road now, he would end up late for work. As it was, he would end up being there at 0800 hrs with the traffic. Lia wrapped her arms around her husband, pressing tightly to him, so that he could feel her warm core and her breasts against his bare chest. "I love you…Tosh" she whispered. "Drive safe…" Oh, man…now he was horny and wanted to make love to her, but he knew that he needed to shower, shave and get on the road. "Raincheck? Sweetheart? Because…" She cheekily grinned at him, "I'm going to want you so bad by the time today's over…" Lia purred at him. Animal groaned as her hands brushed over his groin. "You'd better get in the shower and get ready for work. I have to too. But if we share the shower, we're going to both be late…" she said, letting Animal's mind work overtime at the visual tableau that put into his mind.

With a kiss on the lips of his wife, Animal was on the road by 0520hrs; which meant that he would be in before 0800hrs with about ten minutes to spare.

 _ **JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA, 0710 hrs**_ _**EST**_

"Good morning, ma'am." LN1 Tiner said as Lia walked in through the door in her service blues.

"Morning, Tiner." She replied cheerily as she looked over at the pegboard indicating who was in and who wasn't. Harm wouldn't be in due to his being out-processed the day before for his transfer.

"G'day, Commander Nakamura." Lia turned around to see Mic Brumby standing there talking with the admiral. "How are you this fine morning?"

"Couldn't be better, Mic." Lia replied as she headed for her office. "Tosh said that he'd be leavin' Norfolk around noon and then swinging by the office to pick me up."

"That's a fair drive, isn't it?" RADM Chegwidden asked.

"Oh, a good three and a half hours enroute directly from Norfolk. He's picking up his dress whites on the way to Falls Church so we can go directly to the chapel from there." The church that Mic chose for the wedding was a nice Catholic church; St. James Catholic Church. An old stone structure; built in what looked like the 1800s, the church offered a nice homey atmosphere, at least a much better atmosphere than what the bride would present to the audience. Lia knew that church well; she had been to one wedding there, a fellow officer who had gotten married three years ago.

Mic grinned and said amiably, "I'm sorry that your husband has to drive so far. I'd put him in the sword arch, but I've already got Harm at the head of the sword arch and it just wouldn't fit with an admiral taking orders from a Commander."

"No problem. I'm sure he's just enjoying watching Sarah get married; at least just as much as Harm is going to." Lia grinned at him. Lia wasn't sure whether to grin evilly at Mac's predicament or feel sorry for what Mic was saddling himself with. But at least he looked happy enough.

"Morning." Meg's cheery voice preceded her entrance as the tall blonde Texan Commander breezed through the double doors.

"Morning, Meg." Lia happily responded. Meg's face brightened seeing her new friend. "You think we'll get any work done due to this happy couple." Mic grinned widely at Lia.

"Oh, sure…" Mic responded "Blame it on the Aussie, aye, mate?"…he then grinned at Meg. "But she's right, I'm not sure I'm going to get any work done meself today but marrying Sarah…that's on a good lurk. Mind if we meet for tucker at noon? Maybe we can go over the rehearsal with you."

"Sounds good to me, Mic." Lia and Meg replied turning to go.

"Well, I'd better get to work, or I won't be able to pay for the wedding. Cheerio, Ladies." Mic waved as he headed out the door, nearly colliding with an incoming Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mackenzie who he greeted with a "G'day, luv…" while Mac looked on with her mouth wide open.

Both Lia and Meg took it as a sign to escape into their respective offices. Retreating before Mac could open her mouth regarding what they were doing talking to her fiancé, they shut their doors. Staff meeting would be in about one hour and Lia knew that she needed to make sure her case files were in order and that her update on her current caseload to the admiral would be well-received. Since three of her open cases were going to trial the following week, she would have an concentrated weekend of strategizing to do after the wedding. Animal and Lia would have to get on the road quickly after the reception in order to make it home to give her enough time. She had a plan already, but she had to formalize the arguments and make certain that she brainstormed the answers. As a lawyer she knew that adage: _never ask a question unless you know the answer._ Well, she was going to have to make sure that she left no stone unturned, no answer left uncovered. It wasn't going to leave much time to romance her husband and she knew that she was going to have a case of raging hormones. She sighed to herself, she'd have to take care of it between now and when they had to check out of the hotel at Falls Church on Saturday morning. She grinned to herself, "oh, I'm going to make good on that rain-check to Tosh."

Of course, Monday was when the newest cases were handed out and Lia was thankful for Meg's presence as Meg would be the one getting the majority of the cases dumped on her albeit in the justification that she was taking the load off the rest of the staff. Looking sullenly at the mountain of manila folders on her desk, with the usual FOIA _sign and stamp_ , she muttered to herself quietly, "That damned mountain of folders never gets any smaller." She sourly thought, _and Mac's wedding on top of this whole mess has made it so that nothing ever seems to get done._ It did seem as though the wedding had thrown much of the office into pre-wedding jitters and it seemed as though everyone in the office was running around in circles like Chicken Little appearing to look busy, but not really accomplishing anything of significance.

There was a knock on the door. Lia turned to the door and answered, "Come in."

"Ma'am." Lia tried her damndest not to roll her eyes. Of all the people she needed to encounter this morning. "I couldn't help but notice, ma'am." Lieutenant Loren Singer asked, her tone dripping with saccharine sweetness and Lia looked at her carefully with narrowed eyes for any hint of venomous intent. "Would you like me to take some of those FOIA requests, ma'am. After all, with all your court cases on the docket, I'm sure that the admiral would appreciate those completed and it would certainly take some of the load off. I'm not in court for the next week so…it really wouldn't be a problem." Lieutenant Loren Singer had come in during the Jack Raglan case and then wanted to make an impression with Harm _behind closed doors_ that she wanted to help with the case against Elizabeth "Skates" Hawkes.

"I'll be perfectly fine, _Lieutenant_. Do you not happen to have a mountain of work yourself?" Lia asked, her tone dangerously sweet, noting that the last time that she had passed Lieutenant Singer's office she had seen an equally high mountain of work and made a note to tell RADM Chegwidden to saddle Singer with a few more court cases. "Next time, Lieutenant, make certain that your work is one hundred percent complete before asking for more work. Understood, Lieutenant?!" her query was a sharp whip-crack as Loren flinched.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Dismissed." Lia said icily. Perhaps Loren would be an asset to the Judge Advocate General's office, however Lia did not have the time nor the patience to deal with an upstart, ambitious officer who cut corners to get what she wanted. Loren turned to go out the door, "Close the door behind you." Lia turned to her case files as she heard the door click.

She heard the door open barely a few moments later, "What is it!?" She snapped irritably.

"Ma'am." Tiner's voice was hesitant.

"Yes, Tiner."

"Ma'am, just reminding you that it's five minutes to staff call, ma'am." Tiner said and quickly disappeared not wanting to irritate her further.

 _Well, thank you Tiner._ Lia thought to herself as she gathered up her current cases and put them in her briefcase. She thought fondly to her dad who had bought her that particular briefcase and then smiled as she looked at the rolling legal attache case that her husband had bought her. Both had great memories attached to them and she smiled again as she picked up her briefcase and headed out of her office. The first person she nearly ran into was the admiral. "Good morning, sir." She said.

"Good morning, Commander Gracen." RADM AJ Chegwidden nodded as he proceeded down the hallway towards the conference room.

Mac, Meg and the other lawyers were already at the office when both the admiral and Lia came through the door. "Admiral on deck…" Bud called out.

"As you were." Chegwidden snapped. The officers took their seats as Lia settled in. "Current case disposition. How's the Peterson trial? Lieutenant Roberts."

"Well, sir, the AM3 refused counsel's attempt to plea-bargain a three year sentence for his Article 91 and 92 offenses and wishes to proceed directly to trial, sir."

"Very well." The admiral looked at Bud. "Make sure that you give the case to the RDML Morris and they'll put the trial on their docket. I presume that gives you two weeks to deal with the Sanchez investigation."

"Yes, sir."

"Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie, how's the Morrison case?"

Mac looked a little startled. "Sir?"

"Colonel, I understand your wedding is tomorrow, however, I'd like to know if you've received a continuance on the Morrison case considering that two weeks will be spent away on your honeymoon!" AJ snapped out.

Mac hastily looked at her folders, causing Lia and Meg to look at each other with wry grins on their faces. Flipping open the Morrison folder she said, "Yes, sir. I've notified judiciary of the fact that I will be away for two weeks and that a continuance has been requested."

"Well, make certain that you get the signed copy that the judge knows about it and place it in the file. Hand the folder to me when that happens and I will hang onto it and monitor it until you get back." AJ said brusquely as he pushed his glasses farther down his nose.

 _ **Harm's Apartment, North of Union Station, Washington DC, 0835 hrs EST**_

Harm was usually a morning person, going out for a jog in the morning and then taking a shower afterward. But considering that today was usually an office day, it was strange to wake up late and not have to run around like a madman trying to get everything together to head through mind-numbing traffic to get to Falls Church. But Harm did have plenty on his plate today. He had to find himself a real estate agent to put his home on the market and then look at finding a place that was close to Norfolk, VA. He yawned widely, stretching his arms out in the air and looked around at the place. It had been his home for the past four and a half years and he realized just how much work he'd put into making this his home. He chuckled under his breath as he thought, _well, I guess that's home renovations. Put the work in and then someone else gets all the benefits._

Picking up his phone, he dialed a number.

"Whattaya want, Rabb?" the irritated voice of Vice-Admiral Toshio "Animal" Nakamura growled from the receiver.

"Say, what time are you leaving Norfolk?" Harm asked, amused at Animal's pique. Evidently he had interrupted Animal at a bad time. Harm suspected that he was chewing out one of his subordinates.

"Twelve hundred." Animal growled, "That's if this pissant standing in front of me will quit doing his Pinky and the Brain impression and let me get the hell out of the office."

"Lieutenant Commander Burrows, sir?" Harm asked.

"How'd you guess?"

"Just had a feeling, sir."

"Could you Article 89 his ass and shove him in Leavenworth for a few years?" Animal facetiously asked.

"I could, but I'm no longer with the Judge Advocate anymore. I could ask Meg if she'd want to deal with him."

"Meg?" Animal queried. "The Lieutenant JG that helped investigate the Medal?"

"Yes, sir."

"I might take you up on that offer," Animal's tone of voice indicated an unseen evil grin on the other end of the line. "But I wonder if it's worth the effort when I can just tie him to a rope and keelhaul his ass through the Truman's wake."

"That would be Article 134, sir…with a potential for an Article 118, if he doesn't survive the dunking." Harm grinned as he answered the admiral's query.

"Not worth it…I'll let Meg know if I need her to proceed with scaring the living daylights out of Metalman. After all, a FNAEB would make him sit up and take notice." Animal answered. "What'd you need, Harm?"

"Well, sir, I need to find a home near Norfolk."

"…and you need to find a realtor to do it?"

"Well…uh…yes, sir." Harm stammered a bit staring at the wall of his kitchen as he brewed up a cup of coffee. "I'd like to get closer to Norfolk than I am currently."

"I see you're calling from home," Animal commented, "Call display." He explained further, "What happened, Chegwidden kick your ass out of the office?"

"Yeah, he processed my transfer, and since I'm supposed to report Monday, I have a few things to do. Of course I'm going to need to pack stuff up before heading for Mac's wedding." Harm replied answering Animal's question.

"OK…I'll talk to you about accommodation during the lulls in the rehearsal." Animal said. His tone indicated a dismissal on the phone. "See you up there tonight."

"Thanks, sir." Harm grinned, as the dial tone replaced Animal's voice in his ear.

 _ **US Second Fleet, Norfolk, VA 0840 hrs EST**_

"So, are you going to a wedding?" Metalman asked, his tone ingratiating as he had this irritating smirk that sent Animal's blood-pressure reading into the stratosphere. It was all he could resist to not pitch him out the nearest open window but the highest window that was in the headquarters building was only about five stories up. Metalman had always been a thorn in Animal's side. Considering he was irreverent and didn't care about rank structure, falling just short of a Article 89, Animal put up with him, because he was one of the top naval aviators in the fleet; probably a flimsy excuse, but Animal figured that if Metalman was under his command, he'd be able to be held in rein.

Animal nodded, "Do you not have something to do? Lieutenant Commander?"

"Well, I could go inspect the barnacle clean up crew on the USS Seahawk, sir." A look of merriment crossed the face of Metalman as he looked over to see just how much of a reaction he could get out of the vice-admiral.

"Yeah, do that, Lieutenant Commander Burrows. Git!"

"C'ya!" Lieutenant Commander Burrows waved and headed out the door just as RDML Jim Willis came in. Animal rolled his eyes.

Scooter barked at Burrows. "Stand at attention, Mister!" Metalman came to a standstill and locked to the ramrod straight position of attention. "Just what do you do when you leave the presence of a senior officer?"

"Sir, I should wait for the dismissal of my superior officer, sir. When the dismissal is given, I should come to the position of attention, acknowledge the officer in question, sir, then do a military about face and depart the presence of my superior officer."

"Did you do so?!" was Scooter's bark.

"No, sir."

"Unless you render the vice-admiral his properly due courtesy, I will subject you to a admiral's mast and recommend Article 89 charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and a formal JAGMAN investigation. Am I clear? Lieutenant Commander Burrows!?"

"Aye, aye, sir!" Metalman stiffened up even further if it was possible. "My apologies, Vice-Admiral!"

"Continue your duties as per referenced by your insistence on inspecting the crustacean infestation on the hull of the USS Seahawk. Dismissed. Lieutenant Commander Burrows." It was impossible to keep some measure of satisfaction out of his voice. Animal grinned evilly at Metalman. "Be sure and report at 1300 hrs for some extra-military duty." Metalman paled as he saw the evil expression on both the vice-admiral's and rear-admiral's faces. He chose to make his exit quickly while he still had the chance to.

Once Metalman had departed, "Sir, you were assigning him to inspect the barnacle clean-up crew. Perhaps…a report on the size, weight and composition of the barnacles in question so as to be thorough and meticulous in his military duty would suffice. That should keep him until secure." Scooter grinned at Animal.

"Why certainly. I'm sure it would." Animal smiled, his smile rather malevolent. "I'm sure that he will once he completes his report. That will do him in good stead, if he chooses to continue his attitude without correction because I will assign him to a garbage scow and he can scrape barnacles off the hull."

Scooter chuckled. "That, I would like to see."

"That's how come I keep him in my command. If he wasn't, he'd have somehow managed to get himself removed from the Navy. We put two million dollars into training him to fly in the Navy; he's one of our best naval aviators and I don't want the Navy to have lost out enough money. Hopefully, he'll straighten out and fly right. Or I'll kick his ass so damned hard that I'll have to surgically remove the heel of my foot from his tonsils."

"If he doesn't aggravate you badly enough that you bury him up to his neck on one of our garbage scows first." Scooter snickered.

 _ **JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA, 1045 hrs**_ _**EST**_

Lia was back in her office after a court appearance with the plaintiff that she was currently defending. She was up against Mac and right now, she had a solid case for acquittal. It came down to the word of a ET3 who said that she was having an affair with the defendant, Lieutenant Casey Hamilton who vehemently denied that accusation, but when she went to break it off with him, he had hit her and raped her. It seemed like an open-shut case, at least from where Mac was standing, but Lia had dug into the file and found that the DNA left on the ET3 after their encounter did not match with the DNA offered by the lieutenant as a sample. And the trap that she sprang on Mac was the witnesses that Lia had managed to find sealing the case for the defense. Court was recessed for fifteen minutes while Mac had to deal with the newly found information that her plaintiff was loose and had three witnesses indicating that she had consensual sex with them; and one witness that stated that the defendant was at the O'Club at the time of the alleged rape and had receipts and a bartender who saw the defendant at that time.

Now Mac was going to have to do the cross-examination in court in about another seven minutes and Mac was not happy. In one hour she was going to lose and lose badly, because Lia went and did a ton of work on the case while Mac was busy picking out wedding arrangements instead of dealing with a prosecution's argument. At this point Mac cursed the fact that AJ had mentored Commander Lia Gracen Nakamura. How in the hell did she manage to come up with these people? How could she have overlooked this? She then remembered that she had talked to those witnesses before and yet she had sided with the woman over the man, critically overlooking the fact that these men had all indicated that they had had sex with the ET3 with her consent which did put a big hole in what she was saying. Mac was mad enough to kick a kitten across the room, if she wasn't a pet lover; suffice it to say, she palmed that stress ball hard enough to make the stitches on it nearly pop.

She was going to have to pull a rabbit out of her hat to turn this court-case into a victory and that was about as likely as the sun going red-giant, charring her to a crisp and putting her out of her misery right this instant. _How the hell am I going to win this one?_ Mac thought furiously.

"Ma'am…court resumes in two minutes." Tiner informed the Marine Lieutenant Colonel.

"Thank you, Petty Officer Tiner." Mac said. Tiner grinned to himself as he headed back to his desk. _I'm a legalman, but those jarheads seem to like calling me the generic petty officer._

 _ **Courtroom 3, JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA, 1145 hrs**_ _**EST**_

"Will the plaintiff, defendant and counsels please rise." US Navy Captain Amy Helfman, JAGC Judiciary, intoned solemnly as the sound of people getting out of their seats filled the courtroom. "Will the foreman of the jury please step forward and pronounce their findings."

"Your honor, on the charge and specification of Article 120, Rape, this jury finds the defendant…NOT Guilty; Your honor, on the charge and specification of Article 128, Assault, this jury finds the defendant…NOT guilty; On the charge and specification of Article 133, Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman… Not guilty. On the charge and specification of Article 134-23 Fraternization, Not…guilty."

"Thank you, you may step down." Judge Helfman stated, "Lieutenant Casey Hamilton, This court finds you on all charges and specifications…NOT GUILTY. All privileges and rank will be restored to you as well as your back pay, Lieutenant Commander Hamilton."

"Thank you, ma'am." The lieutenant (commander) uttered a sigh as he looked over at Commander Liandra Gracen, "…and thank you, Ma'am, for defending me." Lia looked over to see Mac disappearing out the door without even bothering to congratulate the lieutenant commander on the restoration of his rank. "Nobody else believed in me, with the exception of those who came out to speak on my behalf. Ma'am."

"Well, Lieutenant Commander, just stay away from the enlisted personnel unless its having to do with work." Lia cautioned him. "Sometimes there are those who are desperate and will try anything."

"Yes, ma'am. I will take that under advisement. Thank you ma'am." LCDR Hamilton shook her hand again and then departed.

After returning to her office, she checked her cell phone. She had put it on vibrate while she was in the courtroom so that the court wouldn't be disturbed if it went off. Checking the message she smiled. Her husband would be departing Norfolk in about fifteen minutes. It would take at least three hours to drive up from Norfolk to Falls Church, and he would be picking up his dress whites which were at the dry-cleaners. He'd also had his full-size medals in a lockbox in the trunk of the car as full dress-whites were to be worn with full-sized medals. That lockbox would come up with them to the hotel where he would wear the medals on his dress whites for the ceremony.

A knock on the door prompted her to look up. "Come in." she called out. Meg poked her head in.

"Hey, it's lunch, wanna go get something to eat?" She asked.

"Sure. Normally, I ask Harm but since he's not here, why not?"

Meg grinned back at her. "That'll be great. I think my stomach's telling my brain that it's going to eat itself if I don't get some food."

Lia grinned at her. "So…all ready for the rehearsal dinner tonight?"

"I guess that means that I should go easy on the lunch, right?"

"If you want to…" Lia replied as she grabbed her cover. "Cafeteria or drive over to someplace. Have been having a hankering for some Japanese food."

"Husband's influence?" Meg asked.

"Yeah. I blame him." Lia retorted.

 _ **JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA, 1310 hrs**_ _**EST**_

Meg and Lia came through the double doors headed for their respective offices when Mac came storming out of her office. "You sandbagged me, Commander!" she complained. "They told me nothing about the fact that they were propositioned by the ET3!"

"Colonel, you had ample time to cross-examine the witness in court; you had ample time to interview the witnesses prior to trial date. Do not even attempt to indicate to me that you were sandbagged. If you had done your due diligence in pretrial investigation, you would have come up with that information yourself." Lia snarled back at her. "Shall we discuss this in your office instead of out here in the bullpen?" Head were poking up out of their cubicles and gazing in their direction. "Now, Colonel!" Lia snapped, pointing towards the Colonel's office. Marching Mac into her office, Lia slammed the door, "Now…let me make myself clear, Lieutenant Colonel. With that shoddy investigation into your case, I could cite your client for Article 89 and 107, the first carrying a minimum of a bad-conduct discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 1 year; the second carrying a minimum of a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and five years confinement if found guilty. As well, I could charge you with Article 92…for failing to provide a proper investigation as directed under order by RADM Chegwidden, _Section (3)_ _Dereliction in the performance of duties_. _(a) That the accused had certain duties, (b) That the accused knew or reasonably should have known of the duties; and (c) That the accused was (willfully) (through neglect or culpable inefficiency) derelict in the performance of those duties._ "

"I'm aware of my duties, Commander." Mac retorted glaring at the much shorter attorney.

"Keep your mouth shut, Colonel!" Lia snapped harshly. "I can continue if you want, but you've also violated sections 1 and 2 of Article 92, so you are well within the bounds of a general courts-martial. All I have to do is say one word to the admiral as to the unfortunate lack of investigation into this case and your career will be over. I personally did my duty, you however failed to do so."

"IS that a threat?!" Mac's voice was raised.

Lia stepped into Mac's personal space and glared up at her. "No, it's a promise. You may be chief of staff, Colonel Mackenzie, but keep in mind that I have one year time in rank seniority over you, Lieutenant Colonel, so you will render me the courtesy of shutting up and listening to instruction that could very well save your career!"


	5. Duct-Taping My Mouth Shut

_**JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA, 1310 hrs**_ _**EST**_

Mac stood there; mouth open thinking _How dare she? I'm the Chief of Staff. How dare she talk to me this way!_ Her hands were by her hips, clenched tightly as she gritted her teeth, absolutely infuriated.

"You'd do very well to consider that impeccable research into your case will stand you in good stead. Taking sides before you know the complete picture will end up dealing you a defeat each time. Perhaps you remember the legal adage: _Never ask a question YOU don't know the answer to…_ " Lia snarled, her eyes flashing, as she turned to leave her office. "Unless you are willing to do a thorough investigation prior to taking your case to court, perhaps your next move should be to consider whether the legal field is what you're best at doing!" Leaving Mac's office, she slammed the door again as she left. In her mind, Lia thought, _Mac could attempt to bring an Article 89 as she's considered Chief of Staff, but considering she violated conduct in relation to the accused under all the circumstances departs substantially from the required standards appropriate to that officer's rank or position under similar circumstances loses the protection of this article. Section 5 should protect me after I upbraided her in the privacy of her own office instead of outside in the bullpen as she accosted me._

Marking a visible thundercloud above her head, she strode towards her own office when her heart sank as she saw RADM Chegwidden step out into the bullpen. "Commander Gracen-Nakamura, a word with you?" he said gesturing to his office.

"Yes, sir." She said, gulping.

AJ shut the door to his office as Lia walked in, squared off to attention in front of his desk. "I heard the brouhaha in the bullpen, and how Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie approached you." He stated, his face expressionless not giving up a hint of how he felt about the entire matter. "From what I can tell, you were in the right to dress her down for impugning your reputation of being an efficient lawyer. But what disturbs me is that you had to do that." He paused for a long moment. "And what is even more disturbing is the implication and evidence that presents itself that she didn't provide a proper investigation and went into the prosecution phase of this case armed with only her personal prejudice."

Lia looked at AJ, but kept her silence.

"Now, in a case like this, I would initiate an investigation as to her conduct. She already is close to getting an OTH (other than honorable) discharge from the Marines for having concealed her un-annulled marriage prior to enlistment under Article 83, as she should be obtaining BAH under married rather than single." The admiral looked at Lia. "Now of course, her having enlisted under single rather than married works out financially for the Marines, but it still is considered a fraudulent enlistment under the UCMJ and it is the letter of the law. As she was acquitted for the charge of Article 118 of her husband, under self-defense; she cannot be tried for Article 83 under the double-jeopardy clause."

"Yes, sir." Lia acknowledged her superior to let him know that she was listening to what he was saying.

"As of right now, she is close to being JAGMAN investigated for violations under Article 92 and Article 98."

"Yes sir."

"I will be talking to her right after this and letting her know that she has one warning, that the two charges are on the table and that if she screws up again, such as coming after you in the bullpen, those charges will become an investigation. Is that satisfactory, Commander?" AJ asked her.

 _Oh, Mac, you screwed up big time…_ "Yes, sir." Lia said, knowing that Chegwidden had heard the initiation of the confrontation and any attempts to defend Mac's actions would be futile.

"Dismissed…" AJ said, as Lia came to attention again and smartly about-faced, departing Chegwidden's office, heading for her own office.

 _ **RADM AJ Chegwidden's office; JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA 1335 hrs EST**_

"Tiner. Get me Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie!" AJ glowered as though Tiner could see that through the phone line. His tone of voice got the point across though.

It was five minutes before the Lieutenant Colonel squared off in front of his desk. AJ looked up at the lieutenant colonel. "Colonel Mackenzie." He paused for a long ominous moment as he stared at her as though he was staring at a particularly interesting dissection experiment. That didn't make Mac very calm. After getting dressed down by Commander Gracen-Nakamura. "You do realize…that I overheard much of the dressing down delivered by Commander Gracen…"

"She was insubordinate, sir." Mac gritted out, while standing at attention.

"Section 5 of Article 89 protects her in this case, Lieutenant Colonel, plus she has an year more as an O-5 than you, so technically, Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie, if she wasn't heading to Judiciary, she'd have your Chief of Staff position because she'd be senior in time in rank." AJ's tone was menacing. "I heard from the dressing down that Commander Gracen gave you that you failed to put effort into the case, that you _chose_ to jump to conclusions and went after the accused on a _personal VENDETTA_!" AJ got up out of his chair, his last word a roar, causing Mac to flinch. "Not only that, but you then turned around and falsely accused Commander Gracen-Nakamura of using illicit tactics to…what was it you said…SANDBAG…you!?" AJ dropped the heat out of his voice; it turning arctic in tone. "You failed to do the best for your client, which in this case; was try the case on behalf of the United States Navy…to the best of your ability WITHOUT PREJUDICE. Are you NOT CLEAR on your duty? Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie!?"

"No, sir." Mac's voice was barely a squeak, transfixed like a mouse in the cross-hairs of a rattlesnake.

"…then your choice was deliberate…" AJ growled; he left the accusation hanging there like an executioner's axe poised over Mac's neck. "IF…you had done the best for your client…it would not have been the reinstated Lieutenant Commander that was under trial, but the ET3. You had the proper witnesses in front of you; and you failed to question them, you boresighted on the target which you felt was an easy win and ignoring all the warning signs you went after the Lieutenant Commander instead of the ET3. Lieutenant Colonel, I don't know whether to give you a non-judicial punishment or sic the bloodhounds on you. This falls under Article 92 for _Dereliction of Duty_." AJ gave her a cold stare. "…and I could cite you for Article 98, _Non-compliance with Procedural Rules_ in this court-case. I know which you would prefer…and since I'm losing both Rabb and Nakamura to Second Fleet and Judiciary respectively, I'm letting you get off with this warning and a non-judicial punishment. But you'd better damned well straighten up or I will drop the UCMJ on your head the next time, AM I CLEAR!?" AJ roared the last three words, making Mac nearly jump out of her skin. "As it is, I have better things to do with my time than chase you around making sure you dot your i's and cross your t's. Colonel, but this is the absolute last time you get any loose-leash."

"Yes, sir!"

"Dismissed." The last was a disgusted growl.

 _ **JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA, 1530 hrs**_ _**EST**_

The office was to secure early for the wedding rehearsal and many of the wedding participants had left for the day, but Meg, Mac and Lia were still busy in their offices working through their cases. At about 1545hrs on the clock, the doors of the office were flung open as a US Navy vice-admiral strode through the open doors. Tiner bellowed to a mostly empty bullpen, "ADMIRAL ON DECK!" Whoever were still in the office jumped to their feet, locking to attention, like service-white uniformed jack-in-the-boxes.

"As you were!" Animal growled as he stalked through the office. Turning to Tiner he asked. "Where's Commander Gracen-Nakamura's office?"

"This way, sir." Tiner stammered as he looked at the three collar-sized stars on each collar of VADM Nakamura's khakis. Second Fleet UOD was khakis, evidently. As they reached Lia's office, he knocked on the door.

"What is it? Tiner." Lia's voice sounded somewhat testy, muffled by the door.

Animal grinned as he opened the door, "Good afternoon, Commander." Animal had an irrepressible smirk on his face as Lia's face lit up, her mood instantly going from morose to happy to see her husband. "Hey…how's your day going, he asked her.

"Ugh…don't ask." Lia muttered as she got her things together.

"Hey, Commander…" Animal looked to see a rather familiar blonde USN commander. "You just about wrapping up?" The commander looked over at his collars and paled for a moment, "I'm sorry, sir." She said snapping to attention.

"As you were, Commander Austin." Animal grinned at her. "Long time, no see."

"I see, you remember me, sir." Meg grinned back at him. Lia gave him a wry look as she looked between both Meg and Animal.

"Yes, Commander, I do. Thanks to your investigation into the blue-button, I get to wear this gaudy bauble." He grinned. "But I do appreciate it." He did truly appreciate her efforts and despite his deprecating description of the Medal of Honor as a gaudy bauble; he wore it out of respect for all those who had done actions above and beyond the call of duty to become recipients of the Medal. And he still wondered how others had considered his own actions to be worthy of that Medal.

"Well, something tells me I hear someone out here." Animal turned around to see RADM AJ Chegwidden, who locked to attention as he saw Animal turn towards him. "Welcome, sir."

"AJ, how are you?"

"I'd be feeling a lot better if you left Rabb where he was, with all due respect, sir."

"You do realize that at some point, he needs a fleet staff tour to have a chance at eagles?" Animal raised an eyebrow at AJ.

"Yes, sir. Unfortunately, though, doesn't mean I have to like it, sir." AJ replied.

Animal snickered in response as both Meg and Lia looked at AJ then back at Animal as to their repartee. He knew for a fact that AJ didn't like the fact that he had yanked Harm out from JAG Headquarters; not one bit, but AJ was trying to be civil. So he decided to be civil as well. After all, there was really no need to start tossing testosterone around. Or to be uncivilized apes trying to get one over on the other. Besides they'd all have to get along in order to get through the wedding. "Well, Rear Admiral Chegwidden, I was just coming down to get my wife and head for a quick bite to eat before we have to be at that wedding rehearsal." Animal commented as he looked at Lia.

"I think that would be perfectly fine, sir."

"Commander Austin, did you need a lift to the wedding rehearsal?" Animal turned to Meg. "If you would like, Lia and I can drive you over to the rehearsal site."

"That would be terrific, sir." Meg replied. "I showed up by taxi, haven't had a chance to be back in the CONUS long enough to get myself a car yet. I was going to buy one next weekend. I booked a VOQ at Andrews."

"Are you staying at the hotel with the wedding party?" Lia asked Meg.

"Yes." Lia nodded at Meg when Meg replied, as she knew that VOQs were lonely places. After all, who wanted to hang their hat at a VOQ when one could spend time with friends.

"Well, why don't you secure too and we'll all go together." Animal suggested.

"OK, sir." Meg grinned at him, "…just give me ten minutes and I'll be ready to go."

"Sure, no problem." Animal replied as he turned to Lia who was getting herself ready to go.

"Did you bring the wedding gift?" Lia asked Animal. Animal thought for a long moment.

"Yeah, I think so. It was that bag right, right? Remember, I put it into the car's trunk last night." He commented.

"Yes." Lia muttered shaking her head. "Are you sure I don't have to drive?" she asked pointedly wondering if Animal had enough brain-cells left after that long drive from Norfolk to be functional driving.

"No, dear…I think I'm perfectly capable of driving this afternoon."

"I hope so…" Lia riposted archly as she gave him a narrowed-eyed, half amused look. AJ excused himself as he stated that he needed to secure himself and head out if he wanted to get there in time to have a bite to eat. Animal looked at the invitation in his pocket.

"The rehearsal's at 1830hrs and goes till 2045." Animal replied. "I think we can find something to eat."

Meg returned; her cover and briefcase in hand. "Well…I'm already to go." She said cheerily. "Any idea where we're eating?"

"Have no clue at the moment." Animal responded to Meg's question at the same time as gesturing to Lia. "I'm leaving the selection up to my wife."

"Well, Meg, he can't make up his mind to save his life." Lia smirked at her husband. "He's horrible at making choices when it comes to food. Every time I ask him to pick something he always says. _I don't know…you pick._ Drives me absolutely nuts. And he does it when I'm unquestionably starving." She nudged her husband with her elbow. "Better not do that tonight." She threatened him.

"Nope…I'll be good." Animal replied, grinning widely.

"So…you gonna pick?" Lia teased him.

"Uh…" Animal stammered looking helplessly at Lia and Meg. "I…uh…"

"We ate Japanese earlier…" Meg said, "How about Chinese?"

"Chinese is good…" Animal said raising an index finger as if to make a point. Lia looked at him as if he was cheating on choosing a restaurant by getting a helpful suggestion.

"Well…you're lucky…I'm in the mood for Chinese." Lia smirked at him.

Animal grinned evilly at Lia… "Well…will you be in the mood for Japanese later after the rehearsal?" then waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Meg rolled her eyes, laughed and said, "I'll wait in the lobby."

Lia smacked Animal's arm…hard.

"Ow."

"Let's go, you…" Lia dragged her husband out of her office and headed off to rendezvous with Meg in the lobby by the elevators. They noted in passing that Mac was still in her office working on her files as they left.

 _ **Wo Jing Restaurant, Falls Church, VA, 1625 hrs EST**_

Seated at the table; Meg on one side, Animal and Lia on the other, they were interrupted by a rather cheerful "Hey, Are you people I know?" Animal looked up to see Harm grinning down at the three of them.

"Siddown, Goofball." Lia ordered Harm as she laughed at him. Harm grinned and looked over at Meg who smiled at him and sidled over.

"Oh, alright…" Meg said mockingly, "…if you really must have a seat…" as she laughed at him with an affectionate smirk. Harm gave her a sad puppy dog stare while Animal and Lia shook their heads, each grinning at the other.

"Hopeless…just hopeless." Animal sniggered.

When the server came over she looked a little surprised to see four people instead of three at the table. "Four? You sit three before." She looked over at both Harm and at Animal.

Animal replied, "Yes he's sitting with us. He arrived late." The server looked suspiciously at Harm but nodded in acquiescence. When the server nodded, Animal looked over at the rest sitting at the table. "How about the ladies order first and then we will." Harm bowed in assent. The server gave Harm another piercing look as if to censure Harm for being the only one in civvies as the rest came directly from work and were still in uniform.

Both Meg and Lia ordered the Peking Duck as did Animal. Harm settled for the Ginger Shrimp with Leek Dumplings. Animal gave Harm a weird look at Harm's selections, but settled on saying nothing. With the order taken, the server headed back towards the kitchen.

"So how was today?" Animal asked his wife, his question casual.

"Court went well; got a win." Lia looked up at him with an innocent look as she answered his question. "Had a nice little chat with the admiral." Animal looked at her; a questioning expression on his face. "He just wanted me to make sure that those junior to me were doing well and that anything that needed correction got corrected." Animal thought she was being disingenuous but he didn't press the issue opting to let Lia tell him when she was ready to. "Other than that, it was dealing with a whole mountainous backlog of FOIA requests…" She let out a melodramatic sigh. "…the usual… _here is the information that you requested..._ or if we can't comply… _I'm sorry, due to classification of the information that you have requested, we cannot comply with your request. Please try again when the classification changes._ " She stuck her fist out, thumb up, winked one eye comically closed and stuck her tongue out for a brief moment like _Winking Jesus_ then continued, "Have a nice day…" in a hilariously sugary sweet voice. Harm nearly burst out laughing.

Lia had always had that tartly sarcastic humor that he knew Animal just loved about his wife. She had the same style of humor that Meg had so that was why they had gotten along so well. And considering both Lia and Meg both worked together, the thought of the two of them in cahoots would and should petrify both Animal and Harm. Animal and Harm locked eyes and nervously nodded. They were both thinking the same thing.

After about what seemed like fifteen minutes, the server came back with the food and laid out the sumptuous repast. Animal said to Harm, "According to the reviews, this place has the best Peking Duck along the Eastern United States…second to none." Picking up his fork, Animal took a piece of chicken and gently separated the skin from it then took a bite. The skin, nicely bronzed and sending up succulent flavors was crispy and delicious. Animal grinned at Harm and said, "MMmmmmm, good." lifting up a thumbs-up.

Harm, being a vegetarian, replied, "I'll just take your word for it…" and proceeded to eat his Ginger Shrimp and dumplings.

Meg bit into her piece of Peking Chicken closing her eyes in sublime pleasure as her taste-buds enjoyed the feast. "Oh, this is soooo good." She exclaimed blissfully. Harm looked at her and shook his head disheartened. Meg shot a peevish look at Harm "What?"

"Just think of those poor ducks that got turned into this artery popping meal that you guys are eating." Harm said, with a teasing grin on his face at Meg, Lia then Animal "That duck could have been a mommy or a grandma…or daddy or grandpa." He paused for a moment in pretend-thought then said, "Or…it could have been Daffy or…" He looked at Animal in horror. "or even Donald Duck?"

Animal gave Harm a withering glare, took up his fork, and jabbed it into a large piece of Peking duck and put it to his mouth, opening wide, then popping it in…chewing slowly whilst having a delighted expression plastered on his face, whilst issuing Harm an unspoken open challenge.

"That's soooo cold." Harm jokingly said. "I'm sure PETA would appreciate your love for animals."

Animal snickered evilly, "I'll be sure to put them on my Christmas card this year. This year's Christmas card will be the roast turkey I have at Thanksgiving. With a _We're so thankful for the animals. Merry Christmas._ " He said dryly.

Harm recoiled in simulated-horror, the merriment in his eyes belying the horrified look on his face. They all laughed as they finished up dinner; asked for the check and paid their bills, gathering their covers with the exception of Harm and headed to the nearest hotel to check in so that they could get changed before the dress rehearsal for Mac's wedding.

 _ **Hilton Garden Inn, Falls Church, VA, 1730 hrs EST**_

Animal looked over at Lia who was dressed in a electric blue Peplum Dress with lace inserts and a midriff ruffle, that showed off her shoulders through the delicately weaved lace. It was rather inexpensive, but looked like it cost a high three figures. Lia had parents who had come through the Great Depression so she was taught to be prudent in her purchases and though what she had in her walk-in-closet at home looked like she'd gone like a tornado through the boutique stores, with enough outfits to satisfy Imelda Marcos, she rarely, if ever, spent more than $150.00 on an outfit. And the way that Lia looked tonight, she was breathtaking as she had applied a soft evening makeup, bronze smoky eyeshadow and eyeliner that highlighted her large expressive blue eyes.

"So, you think Meg's ready too?" Lia asked him.

"Don't care about Meg's being ready…" Animal growled softly. "I think you look absolutely ravishing…" he looked at her as if he was about ready to jump her and skip the wedding rehearsal.

"Down…boy." Lia smirked at him with lips outlined in a lush red lipstick highlighted with clear lip-gloss…oh so highly kissable, Animal thought but didn't so that she could cause other people's heads to turn when they went to the rehearsal.

"Oh, I hope you know that I want to ravish you after the wedding rehearsal..." Animal growled, his voice low with pent-up desire. Lia grinned at him in response. Animal just had a regular civilian suit on as this was just the rehearsal for Mac's wedding and not the real thing.

There was a knock at the door and Animal went to answer the door. It was Harm,"Well we need to get going." Harm commented as he looked over at Animal.

"OK. Harm." Animal replied as he turned to Lia who was getting a pair of runners and putting them on as she put her electric blue matching heels in a bag. She had on gold teardrop earrings which glittered in the light of the bedside lamps. Then she turned around to smile at Harm causing Harm's jaw to drop open.

...causing Animal to growl, "Reel your tongue back in and close your mouth, Rabb. That's my wife you're gawking at." Harm shut his mouth with an audible snap.

"Hiya Harm." Meg's voice right beside Harm caused him to turn around to see Meg dressed in a red cocktail dress. She also had smoky eyeshadow on and she crooked a finger at Harm who wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Both Lia and Meg had throw-scarves that matched their cocktail dresses. Animal wrapped his arm around Lia and both couples headed out.

 _ **St James Catholic Church, Falls Church 1825 hrs EST**_

Harm walked up the stone stairs to the church following his friend and former legal partner. Meg turned back and said softly, "Let's walk in together." She extended her hand to him and Harm took her hand in his as he reached with his free hand to open one of the doors while Meg opened the other door with her free hand.

Lia looked up at the tall spires of the old Catholic church. It was a traditional church with stone facing. She looked at Animal and whispered, "This place is gorgeous." as she held Animal's hand and walked up the stairs and into the church. Inside the church was a neo-modern vaulted ceiling with small hanging lamps which threw a soft light onto the floors and walls. Those walls were cream colored with dark oak accents; a homey atmosphere in a large open space with no pillars to have to crane one's neck around. Lia looked up at the high vaulted ceiling. Any music played here would fill the church. Turning around one hundred eighty degrees, she saw the organ loft.

Mic Brumby walked over to Animal. "Glad to make your acquaintance, Vice Admiral, sir." He extended a hand out to shake Animal's. Taking note of the organ, Animal commented to Brumby.

"Planning on utilizing the organ?"

"Well, we were planning on the processional being Purcell's Trumpet Tune and Air."

Animal nodded. "You do know that Purcell didn't write the Trumpet Tune in D major. It was actually written by a Jeremiah Clarke." His love for classical music was one of the things that raised eyebrows around the naval air wings.

Mic nodded his head in surprise. Of course, he hadn't expected Animal, the rough and tough fighter jock, to have any knowledge of the arts.

"Of course it's a little too late to change it on the wedding programmes." Animal remarked as Brumby winced. "I presume you're bringing in musicians rather than utilizing the church sound-system."

"Yes, sir. It'll be a right royal wedding almost." Mic spoke up brightly.

Animal clapped him on the back. "Well, Mic, it's gonna be well worth it."

Harm feeling magnanimous grinned at Animal and Mic. "I'm glad I'm attending just to see Mac get married. And just for your information, I'm duct-taping my own mouth shut when the minister asks if _there's any objections._ That's my wedding gift to you, Mic." Mic burst out laughing; his animosity towards the tall aviator evaporating. Evidently something happened that Harm was on his side. _Aw hell, even though my parents couldn't attend my and Sarah's wedding as they were all down under, I still have a family comprised of friends up here._ He just wished that his fiancée would unbend enough to make peace with the rest of the JAG staff who were here, regardless of her attitude to support her in her marriage to Mic. _At least I don't feel like an interloper any more._

"I'll thank you for that, mate." Mic grinned back at Harm.

"Well, shall we see who's here?" Animal said looking around. "Then we can get this practice rehearsal underway?"

"Into the breach, my friends." Mic announced as he opened his hands wide and drank in the festive atmosphere as he made his way to the front of the church, while the ones who had something to do in the ceremony were all present and awaiting instruction as to their roles in the wedding. All had smiles on their faces, happy for Mic and his impending change in marital status; all save one. Of course the only person in the crowd that was unhappy was Mac herself.


	6. It's My Wedding and I'll Cry If I Want

_**Author's note:**_ _As a former college music program geek (I was a vocal major in operatic voice with a minor in concert piano before I decided to go full time into my love of visual arts in photography (self taught)), I have grown up all my life with classical music. And my favorite genre is the baroque period. I lovingly blame my late dad for this love of classical music. But I made it my own as I listen strictly to composers from the 1500s to the mid-late 1700s. The only caveat is my beloved wife who prefers Motley Crüe and Def Leppard over Monteverdi and De Lalande. Oh well...I married a hard-rock metalhead but I love her just the same._

 _ **St James Catholic Church, Falls Church 1845 hrs EST**_

Harriet was stressed beyond belief. If helping her best friend get married wasn't bad enough, what was worse was having to deal with a bride who was getting cold feet due to the fact that she knew that she was marrying the wrong guy. Harriet, herself, thought that Mac was clinically insane for even thinking about going through with this. _She should be marrying Harm._ She thought as she helped Mac with getting her hair in her rehearsal styling as well as a light touch of makeup.

Mac hadn't really intended on saddling herself with Mic Brumby. It was a psychological ploy - _if she made it seem as though she was interested in another guy, perhaps the guy she really wanted would decide that he finally wanted her._ What she hadn't counted on was for one Harmon Rabb Jr. to back right off and refuse to have anything to do with her.

Mac looked at the engagement ring on her finger with a look of sheer disgust. And the simple fact that Harm would be in the audience with that blonde bimbo Austin. _Probably holding hands,_ she thought angrily wiping a stray bit of moisture from her eye. This wasn't the wedding she had pictured in her head all those years back before Brumby burst on the scene like a CBU and wreaked devastation into her friendship with Harm. Meg Austin was the crowning touch and she had to thank AJ Chegwidden for that. She was not happy in the least and she did not care that she was holding up the wedding rehearsal. _It's my wedding and I'll cry if I goddamned well want!_ She thought to herself.

"Mac, you need to do this rehearsal. Otherwise no-one will know what their cues are." Harriet exclaimed, her voice tense and excited. "...and the whole ceremony..." Mac looked at her with an acid gaze, such that Harriet stopped mid-sentence.

"I'll go out there when I'm good and ready." She said, her tone dripping with reluctance. This wasn't the wedding she wanted. She was a Marine and Marines were supposed to be fearless. But this was a battle that she wanted no part of and her feet dragged like lead. Sure, Mic could be opinionated, obnoxious and drippingly charming, but did she want to live the rest of her life as Mrs. Michael Brumby? She really didn't but the fear of being embarrassed and alone was worse than the idea of staying out of a marriage she didn't want.

She reluctantly rose to her feet, her dress crinkling as she moved. She decided to wear a red cocktail dress for the rehearsal; her main intent for that being to let Rabb know just what he was missing out on. "Well, let's get this bloody, damned circus over with." She said irritably as she moved towards the door. She still found it hard to reconcile that she had done this to herself in accepting Mic's ring.

When the door opened, she was met with a number of the people who she had required to be at the rehearsal.

"Well, shall we get this started, luv." Mic asked as he gestured to AJ to take Mac's arm. "I believe the order of the processional will be given by the lovely Harriet Roberts."

Harriet looking a bit flummoxed at the praise cleared her throat and said, "ah well...I guess the groom goes down the aisle first and stands by the dais...eh-hem! String Quartet?!" The string quartet musicians stopped midway through playing JS Bach's Arioso; the Adagio from Cantata BWV 156, _Ich steh mit einem Fuß im Grabe_ and looked intently in her direction for instructions. "Musicians. Can I have you start the processional?" Harriet looked at her little notebook. "I believe it was Purcell's _Trumpet Tune and Air_.?" One of five brass quintet players looked over at them.

The lead musician of the brass quintet asked "Would you like us to start playing on the groom's first step or we start playing and he walks on a four-count?"

Harriet pondered that for a moment then said "A four-count please. That will give the audience time to focus their attention on the groom. Thank you." The musician nodded and turned to make a pencil notation to their score. Harriet turned to the organ player in the loft and yelled "FOUR COUNT!" The organist nodded. The difference in distance from the organist in the organ loft, playing the continuo line to the brass quintet seated to the left of the dais along with the string quartet meant that the organ would have to start playing a half beat earlier with a sustained opening note. That way the listener would be able to hear the brass quartet and organ playing in tune.

"OK, Shall we take this from the top?" Harriet asked the group who nodded their heads eagerly with the sole exception of Sarah Mackenzie who did her damnedest to cast a pall over the whole proceedings. However to Mac's consternation, she wasn't able to bring said proceedings to a halt just on the strength of her own misery. Because Sarah Mackenzie appeared to be propelled towards the dissolution of her unmarried state by forces beyond her control. She could scream and rant but that would only bring the white coats with a straitjacket and directions to the nearest mental hospital with a convenient rubber-room. So she gritted her teeth and resolved to get through this whole exercise with the demeanor of a condemned convict being led to her execution.

VADM Nakamura and Lia sat with Harm and Meg on the groom's side; Mac thought braving a look at the four. The vice-admiral had a rather amused expression on his face and Mac hated him in that instant. Lia gazed at Mac impassively, not a trace of emotion on her face as if she was studying a specimen under a microscope. Harm just looked at her with as equal an impassive look as Lia. Mac didn't know what hurt more, the fact that he was at _her_ wedding with another woman as a date or that apathy was what defined the look in his eyes. Meg had a matching look as the vice-admiral; an equally amused expression at the state of the proceedings. Mac realized that she loathed all of them. As she and RADM Chegwidden walked down the aisle to her waiting groom, she felt nearly sick to her stomach; and nearly threw up in her mouth a little.

She had high hopes of Harm objecting at the moment that the chaplain would say, "if there is any reason why this couple should not enter into the holy bonds of matrimony, then speak...or forever hold your peace." But as she looked over at Harm as he gazed into that blonde bimbo's face; she knew her coveted objection would not be forthcoming.

Harm did truly only have eyes for Meg at that point. And Meg had a far-off expression on her face; her imagination taking her ahead in time to a moment where she, herself, would be dressed in white, Harm, the handsome groom, at her side; each reciting the vows that would forever link them in holy matrimony.

Mac could see the slight smile on Meg Austin's face; the dreamy expression and she wanted so much to grab her by the hair and rip those silken blonde tresses out by the roots. _Let's see how stick-boy likes it when I make his little blonde bimbo bald_ she thought was Sarah Mackenzie's and Mac intended to get him married to _her_ by hook or by crook and Meg Austin was just a speedbump that this Mac truck was going to run over. RADM Chegwidden looked at her, a bit concerned as Mac had invariably tightened her grip on his elbow, a cold expression on her face, incongruous to the tenor of the festivities.

Henry Purcell's _Trumpet Tune and Air_ made its crescendo as Mac approached the dais. Mac disdained this type of music. She was of the opinion that it was the music of the rich and snooty. The only people who went to the opera were those of high society and mainly that was so that they could be seen by other people as being of note. The fact that Mic had chosen this kind of music for _her_ wedding irked her. In fact, everything about Mic Brumby annoyed the living daylights out of her. But she had roped herself into this sham of a wedding.

In fact one could actually say that poor Mic Brumby was the one getting the short-end of the deal, but he didn't even bat an eyelash over this as he watched his beloved (at least on his end) walk down the aisle towards him. It didn't even faze him that he could see a flash of distaste wash over her face as she reached him. Poor Mic Brumby was completely and totally in love with Sarah Mackenzie like a male black widow preparing to be slayed then consumed by his mate.

Harriet beamed oblivious to the tense tides that surrounded Sarah Mackenzie. She knew that Mac was marrying the wrong person, but wedding joyfulness was infectious, even when Harriet was the only one who was exhibiting any joy in this ceremony. The rest of the audience was a combination of amused and pity for the poor man who would be marrying Sarah Mackenzie and having to live with her for the rest of his life. _Poor sonofabitch_ the men thought, _Better him than me._ The women on the other hand had hands to their mouths going _Awww, how romantic._

Harm looked over at Animal who was grinning smugly and broke out in a smirk himself. Now he felt whole with Meg Austin sitting beside him. He had someone who understood him for who he was, not who she wanted him to be and Harm exulted in the feel of Meg's hand as she reached for his unseen behind the backrest of the pews. Sarah Mackenzie had done a number on Harm's self-confidence as a man. She had expected Harm to change his very essence; she had resented him for going back to flying and leaving her. So she made him pay psychologically for that slight and she intended to make him pay for the rest of his life. Luckily Meg made an appearance and he had managed to slip out of that very noose that would have at the very least made him miserable and at its very worst, could have killed him from stress alone and he thought about poor Mic Brumby who was standing there very unaware of the situation he had gotten himself into… _poor bastard_. And despite the fact that Harm hadn't liked Mic very much at all, he felt a certain commiseration for the poor Aussie who was dumb enough to get into the same web as the infamous _Sarah Mackenzie._

Lia looked up at her husband with a wry look, "…a rather festive occasion, right?" she whispered to him.

"Yeah, I guess so." Animal whispered back, suppressing a _what a poor unlucky sonofabitch_ comment aimed towards Brumby. "Let's hope this marriage lasts a little more than two months." He whispered low enough that only Lia could hear.

Lia bit down laughter, covering her mouth, as she gave Animal a remonstrative look. "Be nice…" giving him a nudge with her elbow and motioning to the dais with a toss of her head where Sarah Mackenzie was rehearsing the vows with the help of the preacher; the bride looking more and more as if she'd swallowed a lemon. It was all that Lia could do to stop herself from snickering in amusement. _Served that bitch right_. It wasn't that Lia resented her in any way shape or form, but the attack on her legal skills had left Lia with a bad taste in her mouth towards the bride and she viciously thought that Mackenzie getting married to Mic would be absolutely insufferable to that poor Australian naval officer. And she felt a sense of pity for Mic Brumby, as that shrew of a wife would drive the poor man to drink.

The rehearsal went without incident though the attitude of Mac was more one of resignation and unhappiness. She had one more chance with which to have Harm object at the moment that she wanted: at the wedding.

Mic moved towards Mac and whispering something into Mac's ear, he guided her over to Harm and the assembled people. "Thank you all for coming. I know it's gettin' rather late in the evo so Sarah n'I'll bid you all g'night." He reached out for Animal's hand with a firm grip. "Thank you for comin', Admiral..." Turning to Harm, Mic clapped him on the back. "Thanks for comin', mate..." as Harm looked at him in surprise. "Take care of yer new sheila, aye, Mate?" Mic's other hand patted Harm on the shoulder and Harm looked at Mic surprised to see an amiable grin on the Australian's face. He turned to Meg and said, a conspiratorial tone creeping into his voice. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Meg and you keep an eye on Rabb, 'e has a tendency to get it all too often." Her puzzled expression caused Mic to laugh. "He needs a minder or he gets into trouble."

"Thanks, Mic..." Harm retorted dryly. Harm decided to be magnanimous, extending his hand towards Mic. "Friends?"

"Bonzer!" Mic nodded; a wide smile on his face, gripping Harm's hand in his. "You got it, mate." Mac looked shocked. Peace had been declared. The whole goddamned world was going to end...

...at least for one Sarah Mackenzie and her heart sank as she watched the two shake hands. She was in deep with no way to get out and she cursed the day Chegwidden made her go and pick up that narcissistic (she was reflecting) stuck-up Australian horn-dog from the airport. She wanted to scream in frustration but wasn't able to so she adopted a sour expression and stood there silently while Mic thanked the rehearsal guests one by one. After the thank yous and see you tomorrows were all over and done with, Meg slipped her arm through the crook of Harm's elbow. Lia grinned and reached out for Animal who took it with an affectionate glance towards his wife.

Heading back to the hotel was a quick ten minute walk if that. Falls Church was a family neighborhood with lots of lighted sidewalks. The elevator ride was up to their respective rooms. Animal had obtained for himself and Lia a one bedroom one king suite; which gave them a modicum of privacy.

After a brief conversation about the next day and the times, as well as a few other inconsequential things; Meg and Harm bid Animal and Lia a good night leaving to return to their own rooms as Animal turned to insert the key in the keyhole.

"See you tomorrow morning." Lia replied cheerily as she turned to follow her husband into their hotel suite in room 301. After all, the whole afternoon through evening get-together for the sake of one Sarah Mackenzie's wedding had been overly exhausting and tiresome. But now she had her husband all to herself. Hearing the satisfying door click behind her and self-locking, she shed her throw scarf, letting it slip off her shoulders onto the little couch, more a loveseat and kicking off her high-heels, then following her husband into the bedroom. "Sweetheart?" she purred…audibly enough to catch her husband's attention.

Animal turned to find Lia with her hands held demurely in front of her, a cheeky grin on her face. "You were saying something about Japanese after the rehearsal?" She said, knowing that she'd correctly interpreted his intention when he had picked her up from work by the reaction she received, both on his face and somewhere a little lower.

"Yeah…" Animal growled low in his throat. "I think I was…" His smoldering glance caused Lia's lips to part and a bead of anticipatory sweat to pearl in the philtrum.

"Then…" Liandra gasped…as Animal crushed her to him; "…oh…god…yes…" she left her sentence unfinished as Animal clamped his lips on hers, their tongues dueling for entrance at each other's parted lips. She felt Animal's fingers undo the little button at the top of her off-the-shoulder evening cocktail dress and barely registered the zipper sliding down to her waist. Then the light breeze of the fan in the room, brushed her bare shoulders as the cocktail dress slid off her upper arms and torso down her lissom body, her legs and fell to the floor, leaving her uncovered only for his eyes.

Animal's voice was hoarse with passion and desire for Lia. "You…went commando?" he asked as he shed his own clothes.

"mmmhmmm…" Lia grinned at him. "So…" she stopped there, letting him visualize.

Of course, that made Animal absolutely horny as hell. And the cries of lusty passion that ensued…ensured that the result was two lovers catching their breath after a round of lovemaking that left them sweaty, sated and tired at the end of it all.

Lia perched on one elbow on the bed as she caressed Animal's bare chest, "…so what got you so aroused…not that I'm objecting to the result, mind you." She gave him a peck on the lips.

"Just the thought of you sitting so daintily on the church pew and then finding out that all that lay between you and your core…was that dress. If I had known…" He left the thought unfinished. That would have been sacrilegious.

"oh…" Lia grinned at him. "You able to sleep yet? Or can you manage another round…old man." She reached over and patted him.

"old man?" Animal growled…with a mock air of offended propriety. "I'll show you…old…" He flipped her on her back and crouched over her, poised over her feminine entrance.

"So…bring it on…" Lia challenged him then bit off a passionate moan.

So began round two.

 _ **Harm's Room, Room 318,**_ _**Hilton Garden Inn, Falls Church, VA 2230hrs**_

Meg looked over at Harm with a look of trepidation, "Harm, we have to talk a bit…"

At the tone in Meg's voice, he felt a shimmer of anxiousness along with a small amount of dread mixed in. "Yeah, I guess we do." He said slowly as he turned to her. He ushered her into his hotel room, asked her if she would want a drink from the bar fridge in the hotel room; she declined. And after a few moments of getting rid of his suit jacket and loosening his tie, he couldn't delay the conversation any longer.

"I need to tell you, Harm, why I came back." Meg said. "It wasn't just a transfer back to JAG."

Harm felt his heart nearly stop, unsure of which to do: either hope for some sort of resolution to the ache that was in his heart every time that he looked over at Meg or plunge to the depths of despair in what she was about to tell him.

"There was something else involved." She said hoping that she had the courage to tell him this, but she needed to explain herself first and in order to get an answer to that she had to ask a few questions of her own. "These past few days, I've been getting the feeling that Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie has taken a distinct dislike to me and part of it is the fact that I think she feels that I'm encroaching on her property…" her tone was one part curiosity, two parts satisfaction.

Harm looked extremely confused, he was action-oriented, not emotional touchy-feely. To him, emotions were those nebulous, uncomfortable things that no-one who had a man-card ever talked about. And feelings were forbidden territory. Men just did things and let the consequences fall where they may.

"The thing is, Harm, I don't understand why she thinks you are her property. Especially not when she has Mic Brumby to fawn over her." She gave Harm a penetrating look, "Was there something there? I mean…is there something between you and LCOL Mackenzie?"

Harm looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a moving semi. If he didn't give her a satisfactory answer, he was going to screw up their friendship, majorly; and something was brewing underneath the skin of one Commander Megan Austin; something nebulous and frightening. It was that damned F word; the ones that make men pale to even think about let alone talk about. He stuttered unconvincingly. "N…no…"

"Don't tell me a lie, Harm." Meg neutered his denials with a sharp glance. "She's a little too possessive for me to believe that."

"No…there is nothing going on between us, except for some harmless flirting; but she seems to have taken the idea that we're together and that nothing is ever going to come between us." Harm muttered more to himself, than as a way of explanation.

"That doesn't explain why she's engaged to be married to someone else tomorrow." Meg said archly.

Harm sighed deeply, the words that Mac spoke tattooed to his heart. "She told me when we went to Australia, that we should hop into bed together; that _We're not in Washington. We're not even on the same continent_. I told her that the location didn't change who we were; that if we did do something like that, we would be endangering our jobs. It just seemed as though she didn't want to hear it. She asked me. _You're just this way with me, aren't you?_ " He sighed taking a look at Meg. She was silent, listening, appraising him, it seemed. " _I suppose I should be flattered_ was her next comment. I mean, I was respecting her as a woman because she hadn't been respected before. Plus I wasn't ready to make such a deep commitment. I'd just found out that I lost my dad and I was reeling from having to put closure to my flying ambitions, but she wasn't ready to deal with that. When we were heading home, she showed up, Brumby in tow and flashed her ring. I knew damned well that she was showing it to me. I remember what the admiral said to me. _Commander, never look back._ I should have taken that advice." He said bitterly as he realized just how alone he was.

"Well…" Meg said. "Do you really want her?"

"Meg, I don't know what I really want right now." Harm said, his eyes reflecting the anguish in them. "I'm confused, hurt; unsure of what my next move will be other than be grateful to Lia for prodding her husband into transferring me out of JAG. What my options next will be, I have absolutely no idea." He paused for a long moment and the bitterness poured out of him. "All I know is that I won't be objecting to the marriage when the minister asks if there are any objections. I'm tired of being manipulated and I'm just waking up to the fact that I have been, ever since Sydney."

Meg looked at him. How naïve men were in the way that women's minds worked? Even older men. "Harm, you've been manipulated long before then, it just had to come to this shocking moment that made you realize that you were."

Harm looked hurt, "How…did you realize that." His own aching heart made him a bit testy.

Meg gave a short laugh, "I've seen my share of manipulative people. Harm, in the business that I was in before I came back to JAG. I learned to either work with them and manipulate them in return or avoid them like the plague. I'm just surprised that I didn't become jaded and manipulative myself."

"So, what do you want out of life?" Harm asked. "Now that you're out of the black projects game."

"What any woman wants…Harm, a husband, a comfortable home and a family." Meg replied as she smiled sadly. "It's not like I've had much opportunity…with the wants of the Navy."

"So, we're a couple of bitter cast-offs?" Harm asked, not meeting her gaze.

"No, I'm not bitter, just sad about lost opportunities." Meg said quietly as she looked over at him, assessing his reaction to her admission. "I had opportunities to date, but nothing ever panned out. They just weren't the type that I was interested in. And there was too much secrecy involved. And who wants to have _secret project_ pillow talk."

Harm's eyes were going wider in response to the rather indelicate way to which Meg was referring to a relationship. "So you kept out of the dating scene?"

Meg gave him a cynical look. "Yeah...better to not think about it and focus on work rather than have to constantly worry about whether or not you let something classified slip while in the midst of having the best coitus imaginable."

Harm turned red with embarrassment. Men really couldn't handle talking about sex, she snickered to herself. She was now two for two in making Harm uncomfortable. He'd probably run the other direction if he knew just how she had kept herself satisfied these past four years. She smirked at him…not saying a single thing. Hey, imaginations were good for something at least.

Harm grew even more red in the face with embarrassment. Meg finally relented. "After the SECNAV decided that I'd done enough to serve my country and rewarded me with a promotion and a transfer back to where I'd wanted to stay, I thought that perhaps I'd probably see you again."

"Me?" Harm asked, his ability for coherent speech failing him.

"Mmmmhmmm." Meg affirmed. "I wanted to see if you were still at JAG or whether you had been transferred. And of course, you were still there and then after I got there, you got transferred out again." She said, finding the humor in the whole situation.

"Yeah…" Harm said. "We're still stuck apart." He muttered wondering how he could never get his life together the way he really wanted to.

Meg reached out a hand tentatively to cup his hand. "You know…we don't have to be." She stated.

Harm looked over at her in shock then his face lit up as he realized belatedly what Meg had just enlightened him with: "Meg, are you sure about this?" he asked her hoping that her answer would be what he had hoped; he had tried to push Meg out of his mind when she had disappeared to an assignment that he never knew and the higher-ups wouldn't give him any information on.

"One of the reasons why I came back…I had hoped that we would end up working together again, just like old times…" Meg assured him, her tone a little wistful; "But working together wasn't meant to be." She said sadly.

Harm's heart fell into one of his ankles "I guess things don't ever work out the way we want it to..." he muttered, but was shocked when Meg grinned widely, her face lit up with joy.

"...oh, it works out... it really works out even better this time!" she smiled widely at him. "At least this won't be against the regs." She got up, came over to sit beside him on the bed.

"Wha-at?" Harm stammered completely flummoxed by a now rather forward Meg Austin sitting just about on his lap.

"Harm…" she looked at him closely, her blue eyes meeting his steel-grey smoky ones. "When one door closes…another one opens. You realize this, don't you?"

"Um…yeah…I think…" Harm managed to get around the frog that seemed to have suddenly materialized in his esophageal passageway.

"Harm…" Meg leaned in even closer…and whispered in his ear… "I love you…"


	7. Let's Get This Show On The Road!

_**Harm's Room, Room 318,**_ _**Hilton Garden Inn, Falls Church, VA 2230hrs**_

… _and whispered in his ear… "I love you…"_

Harm's lower jaw nearly hit the ground at the revelation, staring at his former partner. Dead silence filled the room as Meg's admission penetrated his thick skull and his synapses processed that information.

"Harm?" Meg asked, her look of dejection at his protracted silence finally coaxing Harm to reach for her, to let her know that he understood. In that simple motion, Meg knew that he had at some deep primal level, his conscious had processed the information that she had dropped like a bomb in his skull.

"Meg…" he finally said as he grasped her shoulders and held her in place. "Y-you love me?" he stammered managing to get the words out between a tongue and a palate that had suddenly gone uncooperative.

"Yes…you wonderfully, thick-headed…oaf." Meg murmured softly as she took his face in both hands and leaned in to kiss those delectable lips (AN: ugh…I'm a male here… I'm sorry…but this isn't easy to write from a female viewpoint). "Yes…Harm…I've loved you since the Hemlock incident…"

Harm's eyes went wide-open. He knew that he had just about gone crazy from worry after hearing that Hemlock, disguised as a Royal Navy Commander, had shot Meg. Harm had to track the assassin down to prevent him from going after Shepherd…the codename for Boris Yeltsin and had finally subdued the assassin emptying his Beretta through the rear window of the BMW that Hemlock was trying to escape in.

"I found out that you went after him…for me…" Meg said softly, leaning in and kissing him again and again. "…that's when I knew that you had feelings for me."

"…so…why did you leave?" Harm asked, torn between wanting to and not wanting to hear the answer.

Meg looked deeply into Harm's eyes hoping that her next answer wouldn't cause him to hate her. "Because…I knew that if I kept working with you, that sooner or later, I wouldn't be able to control myself. If it wasn't for that blabbermouth Krennick…" she muttered, "I'd have…" she stopped herself.

"You'd have what?" Harm asked her with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

"I'd have…jumped you…in Cuba." Meg admitted, her face flushing, her voice low and breathy. Harm's facial response nearly made her giggle; he looked like the proverbial cat that ate the canary.

"Really?" Harm's eager response nearly made Meg laugh out loud as she caressed his face. "God…Meg…you know that this could get complicated."

"Only as complicated as you want it to get…and I like things simple…" Meg responded as she leaned into him for another kiss.

"Do we really need the other room?" Harm asked.

"I don't think so…" she murmured softly.

Harm resolutely said. "Then…move your stuff into mine…I'll help you…" He said…moving to get up from the chair even if it broke the spell that her words had on the both of them. "Then we can go get rid of the room tomorrow and then…we can share the room until we check out on Sunday morning." He said eagerly as she looked at him with her own mouth open in shock at how fast he was moving.

But did it really matter? She had come back to JAG with the aim of snaring him in her grasp and she had succeeded. She wasn't going to get cold feet now. "OK…" she decided, moving away from him. "So…that's what we'll do."

 _ **Animal and Lia's Room, Room 301,**_ _**Hilton Garden Inn, Falls Church, VA 0630 hrs**_

"Good morning, beautiful." Animal softly whispered in Lia's ear making her hair twitch with his breath. "I love you…"

"That tickles." Lia murmured as she tried to burrow in under the covers. "Stop it…" she grumbled, trying to get some more sleep.

Animal wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, spooning together. She sighed contentedly and pushed against him. Animal buried his face in her hair and they enjoyed their closeness. "What time is the wedding?" he asked.

"Last I heard, they were going to have it at around one o'clock in the afternoon. Enough time for a reception and then they were going to head off down under for their honeymoon. And…we're back to work on Monday."

"Yeah…we're booking out this afternoon, right?"

"Yeah." Lia replied. "I guess, since you won't let me sleep." She gave him a peevish glare, which Animal knew for a fact was feigned.

Laughing, Animal grinned. "Well…of course we could share the shower if we want to cut down on wasted time."

"Ha ha ha…" Lia replied with a hint of sarcasm as she gave him a disbelieving stare. "Yeah…like that would cut down on wasted time alright. We'd be wasting more time with you being Mr. Hands-Everywhere."

"Can't help me for trying." Animal grinned widely at her.

Lia shook her head sighing, "Men…" she said with affected disgust as she threw back the covers, grabbed a towel and headed for the shower.

Animal leaned back in the bed, intertwining his fingers behind the back of his head with a self-satisfied grin on his face, listening to the water run in the bathroom shower.

"That doesn't mean that you can layabout either!" Lia's admonition was heard over the sound of the running water in the shower."

"Yes dear." Animal got up and got dressed. "Honey? I'm going down to get some breakfast. You want any?"

"What?!" his wife replied… "I can't hear you over the running water!"

Animal walked over to the bathroom, leaned his head in while pulling on his underwear, shorts and t-shirt. "I said that I'm going down to the hotel café for some breakfast…you want me to bring the breakfast up." Lia showering, opened the door of the shower and gave him a _well, duh_ look. "OK…yeah, I guess that means a _yes_." A raised eyebrow denoted another _no…duh_. Animal gave his naked and sopping wet wife a wide grin, looking at her body up and down, wolf-whistled; then amscrayed out the door before she could throw the bottle of body-wash that she had in her hand, at him.

The doors had self-locking mechanisms that could only be opened by card-reader so he grinned as he headed off down the hallway whistling _Anchor's Aweigh_. The downstairs café had a breakfast of hashbrowns, eggs, toast, bacon and sausages so Animal ordered two orders; one for his wife and one for himself. Getting them _to go_ in two Styrofoam cartons, he paid for the orders. The clerk placed them both in a plastic bag so that he could carry it back upstairs.

Lia was out of the shower by the time he got the door open and ushered himself into the hotel-room. Hearing the reassuring click, he put the bag on the coffee-table in the sitting room. His wife wandered out of the bedroom in her bathrobe and said. "Ooooh…smells good, what's in the bag?"

"Oh…breakfast…" Animal said enigmatically as he pulled out the Styrofoam containers.

"Obviously." Lia smirked at him. "Something smells like bacon…and sausages."

Animal grinned back at her "…and you'd be right."

Lia popped open a container…"Mmmmm, wonderful." She opined as she grabbed a forks and started digging into the repast. "Just what I needed."

"Aren't you glad that Harm isn't here to nitpick at your carnivorous diet?" he asked, popping open his own Styrofoam container and grasping a fork with which to eat. Animal never bothered with knives unless it was for combat use. If he wanted to split a sausage in two, he just used the edge of the fork, then speared it. Saved washing two utensils when it came to dish washing. Luckily all he had to do was throw these utensils out as they were the disposable kind. _More waste for the sake of expediency_ was the fleeting thought that ran through his mind before hunger took over. Glancing over at his wife who appeared to be enjoying the meal, Animal grinned. "So…is the breakfast up to your standards?"

"Yes…and I'm trying to eat before it gets cold." Lia replied lifting yet another forkful of sausage to her mouth. "…but thank you…it's delicious."

"Good, so I won't have to take it back downstairs and complain." Animal kept that wide grin fastened on his face.

Lia looked at him with a wry expression, "Not this time…" she assured him as she halved the hash browns and put some on her fork with her knife.

The knock on the door caused Animal to look up from his breakfast and mutter. "Now what could that be?" The time on the clock was 0745 hrs. Animal got up out of his chair and headed for the door. Peering through the peephole he acknowledged who it was with a disgruntled snort. He opened the door grumbling "You know we were in the midst of having breakfast?"

Harm gave him a beaming smile while Animal glowered at him darkly. "We're in love..." Harm indicated his companion. Animal raised an eyebrow, peering over at Meg and looking her up and down.

"Wait a sec. I didn't hear that correctly...I think I've got a hunk of moussaka in my ear or something." Harm grinned even wider...as Animal shook his head and continued, "I didn't hear that; whatever it was, I don't want to hear it. Honey?!" He turned to holler at Lia. "Better finish dressing, the neighbors just came over!"

Harm's face couldn't grin any wider when Lia muttered an irate epithet and yelled back, "If my food is cold by the time I get finished dressing, he'd better make himself a dot...as you fighter jocks like to say...because I'm not going to be HAPPY!"

Animal looked up sourly at the twin towers. "Well this neighborhood just went to hell in a handbasket." He opined, more than a bit irritated; he then asked, "So...whattaya want? My food's getting cold!" he complained as Harm grinned at him for a long moment that just made Animal even more ill-tempered. "Can I finish my food now?" Animal asked him, expecting to hear a long-winded epistle as to why he shouldn't eat meat from the ever present vegetarian. _Sanctimonious bastard!_ Animal grumbled silently to himself, not really meaning it; just irritated at the interruption of his meal. As if he expected to get a heart attack just from viewing what someone else ate.

Harm just grinned at Animal. He could see steam coming out of Animal's ears and decided to give him a break. "Yeah, go ahead and eat your dead animals. Can't have you ornery this morning."

Animal snorted and returned to his repast. "Fucking hell, this stuff is cold!" He looked over at the microwave. "This thing had better warm this up without making it too damned hot to eat." Meg smirked at Animal who was trying to figure out the dials on the microwave with relatively little success.

"Here…I'll do that for you." She reached over, turned the dial to one and a half minutes. "That should make it hot enough that it will be edible yet not hot enough to scorch your tonsils when you swallow your food."

"Thanks. I'm beginning to feel more and more like a troglodyte." Animal commented to Meg as she returned to Harm's side. Lia came out of the bedroom fully dressed and Animal turned his head towards her in appreciation of her outfit.

"I'm going to have to come back to the hotel to change into the wedding day outfit." Lia leaned in to give Animal a kiss.

Harm turned to Meg; then back at Lia and Animal "Well, since you two have already had breakfast delivered up to your room. Meg and I are going to go scrounge something up at the hotel cafeteria. I presume it was good?" he asked.

"Edible enough." Lia replied as she gestured at her now room-temperature food that would probably need to be microwaved to be edible again… "Honey, can you throw this in the microwave after yours is finished for about two minutes? It's cold…no thanks to you!" she pointed at Harm who took that moment to beat it out the door. Meg shrugged her shoulders…and mimed a _sorry_ back at Lia who just grinned back at Meg; after all not the target of her enmity and said, "De nada…"

 _ **St James Catholic Church, Falls Church, 1200hrs**_

Commander Mic Brumby was dressed formally in choker whites, three stripes: the top-most stripe had a curl and there was a metallic _AUSTRALIA_ attached to the bottom stripe. The RAN choker whites were similar in cut and style to the USN choker whites. Standing beside him was Lieutenant Bud Roberts who mumbled something about the fact that it was almost time.

"I know, Mr. Roberts." Mic replied gazing up at the presbytery, "Y'know. I've dreamed of this moment for a long time. It seems like I've traveled a long way just to find the woman of my dreams. From the bush to Washington DC. It's been a journey. Thank you for standing up for me. Mr. Roberts."

"It's been my pleasure, Commander." Bud replied as their gaze scanned the entire church interior.

"Last hour of bachelorhood." A voice startled Mic as he turned to address the speaker…RADM AJ Chegwidden was in US Navy dress whites. "You take care of the Colonel, do you understand?" AJ inclined his head forward with a intense look at Mic Brumby.

"Yes, sir. I will…" Mic replied, no animosity returned despite the intense gaze of the admiral promising dire measures should Mic not do as directed. The admiral nodded at him, his point made; the gaze between the two men telling all that needed to be said.

Bud's gaze turned towards the door as the door opened and Vice-Admiral Nakamura, replete in dress whites and three star gold encrusted shoulder-boards stepped through the door; Commander Liandra Gracen-Nakamura at his side; the couple looking for a place to sit down as the church silently filled. Lia looked towards Bud and walked towards him. "Good afternoon, ma'am." Bud said as he looked over at the female commander.

"How are you faring? Bud?" Lia asked.

"I'm fine, Ma'am. Though I'm sure, Commander Brumby is nervously awaiting the ceremony." At the mention of his name, CDR Brumby looked over and approached the US Navy commander.

"Good afternoon, Commander Nakamura." Mic greeted her. "Thanks for coming. And please give my regards to the Vice-Admiral."

"I will certainly do that. Mic. Congratulations. Hope that you're holding up for the ceremony."

"Lia, if I drop on the floor in a heap, you'll know why." Mic replied jauntily. "Right now my stomach feels like I got a boomer givin' me an arse-kicking; a large male kangaroo…" he hastily explained his Australian slang term.

"It'll get better once the ceremony progresses." Lia reassured him.

"Thanks…" Mic responded gratefully.

"Hello, Mic."

Mic turned to greet Harm who was standing there with Meg. "Bonzer! Glad you made it, Rabb."

"Well, couldn't miss this one, could I?" Harm grinned at him. Mic silently looked at Meg and then back at Harm with an inquisitive gaze, the silent question hanging between them. Harm nodded.

"Good onya, mate!" Mic grinned widely giving Harm a pat on the back. "Knew ya 'ad it in ya. Congratulations, Meg."

"Thanks, Mic." She said.

" 'Ave ya told your Admiral, yet?" he asked Harm indicating the Vice Admiral with a nod.

"Yeah, probably not at the most opportune moment though." Harm admitted, as Lia burst out laughing. "He was having breakfast." Lia elbowed him. "OUCH! What was that for?" Harm rubbed his abused midsection while Meg started laughing.

"I told you that you weren't in good odor after making my food go cold." Lia growled, giving Harm the evil eye. "…and it was a good meal too. Reheated loses the taste." Her voice saccharine sweet, she asked him, "So…how was YOUR meal…" she said raising her eyebrow meaningfully, sending the message that she hadn't appreciated her own meal getting cold due to the interruption.

"So…everybody's up by the dais?" Animal approached the group standing in the transept of the church and came up behind Lia to put his hands on his wife's shoulder. "I guess we're just waiting for the ceremony to start…and the bride to show up."

 _ **Pastor's Office; St James Catholic Church, Falls Church 1300hrs**_

Harriet was reassuring a distraught Sarah Mackenzie in the pastor's office where the pastor had given up his room temporarily to allow Harriet and Mac to discuss the situation. Mac was getting cold feet, and Harriet was doing her very best to try to keep Mac from bolting from the ceremony that had been planned. "How can I marry him…when I don't love him like I love Harm?" Mac said, her voice muffled due to her face being buried in her hands. "I can't do this…"

"Mic's expecting you to marry him." Harriet was now irritated with Mac and rightly so. Mac had been her friend for a long time, but Harriet was starting to lose her patience with Lieutenant Colonel Sarah "Mac" Mackenzie. "He's waiting for you and it's not like you've had plenty of opportunity to tell him that this doesn't feel right for you. You've had plenty of time to back out of this…and you couldn't bring yourself to do so." She turned to the window and growled. "I can't believe this. I'm starting to feel sorry for Mic and that's hard for me to reconcile." _How much easier would it have been if Harm and Mac owned up to the fact that they loved each other? Why couldn't they have admitted it to themselves?_

In the amount of time that Harriet was fuming, Mac was trying desperately to figure out a way that would get her out of the wedding without having to look like the bad person. If she skipped out of the wedding, everyone would sympathize with Mic and she'd end up being the one with the fingers pointed at her. If she chose to go through with the marriage then perhaps she could wait a month and then divorce him with the excuse of irreconcilable differences, but then she realized that she was marrying in Falls Church, Virginia…and that was a state that did not recognize _irreconcilable differences_ as a legitimate divorce mechanism. In Virginia; to get a divorce would be either fault grounds; which were cruelty, adultery and desertion or no-fault grounds where they would both have to agree to living apart. The fault grounds would have to be initiated on her end by inflicting cruelty, adultery or desertion on Mic as he would never do any of them due to the fact that the poor sick puppy worshipped the ground Mac walked upon and he would never agree to a no-fault grounds divorce due to separation because he wouldn't agree to the separation in the first place. Mac sighed in frustration. It appeared that she was trapped into the position of being the _unscrupulous actor_ in this divorce. "I guess I have no way out of it." She replied.

Harriet didn't even bother giving her the benefit of a reply; which told of how disgusted that she was with Mac at that juncture. She nodded to Mac indicating the veil…and silently placed it on Mac's head so that it was presentable. The make-up was still intact and Mac, despite her internal mood, looked the part of the blushing bride.

"Better than nothing…" Mac mumbled to herself as she got up out of the chair, straightened her back and nodded to the pastor and to Harriet. "Let's get this damned show on the road."


	8. This Wasn't The Ceremony I Wanted

_**St James Catholic Church, Falls Church, 1330hrs**_

Animal and Lia were sitting in the pew in the third row alongside Harm and Meg; the mellow sounds of a string quartet playing _Largo from Xerxes; an instrumental version of the aria Ombra Mai Fu._ Animal enjoyed the incidental music as he waited for the ceremony to start. Poor Mic looked like he was trying to adjust his collar and it looked as if he was sweating under the hot pot lights over the presbytery; Animal mused as he looked over at Liandra who was trying to enjoy the ambience of the church amidst the music. Animal smiled wryly as he realized that this was a secular opera piece being played within the confines of a sacred place of worship. Back during the 1700s, operas were played in the confines of a concert hall such as King's Theatre kept strictly away from the sacred and thus, such a piece being played within St. James Catholic Church was irony indeed. Animal grinned as he thought _…at least no one is getting struck by lightning or getting hanged for heresy._ _That was the good point about it being 2001_ ; Animal snickered silently to himself.

Harm sighed, his heart was comforted by the closeness of his dearest friend and former partner who now had returned to JAG. However he recognized that his transfer from JAG headquarters to US Second Fleet had now enabled him to realize something that had often plagued his mind in the years that he had been teamed with Meg Austin on JAG investigations: that their inevitable attraction towards each other had made it a volatile cocktail of emotions; a potent combination that would have made it impossible for them to work together professionally for much longer than they had. In all the years that he had worked with Mac; they had never been as close as he and Meg had; whether it was a case of opposite personalities with Mac or the antagonistic relationship that they had as partners; Harm didn't know. But he knew a good thing when he had it in his sights. And the admission that Meg loved him had pierced that thick skull of his like an icepick through an arctic icepack. His mind was now running laps trying to figure out the logistics of this new relationship of his. And he knew that this wasn't just his to figure out anymore. He could share the solving of this new relationship with his better half and that was what he referred to Meg now; and the term _his better half_ fit. He leaned back in the pew and put his arm around Meg's shoulders and looked at her. She smiled softly back at him and leaned into his embrace.

Meg sighed as she rested her head against Harm's shoulder. When she had admitted that she had feelings for Harm, she had expected some initial resistance, but she hadn't realized just how he would react. The fact that he had reached for her like a flower reaching for sunlight. They had talked into the night about their relationship, the fact that he had been hurt emotionally by Sarah Mackenzie and that he was still recovering from the fallout that had happened when he had initially asked Mac for time and then found that she had gone running into Mic's arms. Meg resolved that she was going to do everything that she could to help Harm heal from that. Mac had hit him when he was emotionally reeling; from the loss of his father – it took more than a single year to recover from a loss like that, she thought. Harm had been missing his father for so long, searching for him having gone to Viet Nam as a teen and then to Russia. If Meg had been there, she knew that she wouldn't have hesitated to go with him. She would have held him as he learned of his father's death at the hands of Russian soldiers while he was trying to defend the honor of his Russian wife and not expect him to rebound back emotionally by trying to coax him into jumping into bed with her as Mac had. Then fast on the heels of that was the revelation after Harm had gone back to flying F-14s that Mac had reamed into him about the fact that he was abandoning her to go back to flying. Meg had flown with Harm in an F-14 Tomcat when they had gone to investigate a fatal accident during an emergency evac drill for a space-shuttle launch at Vandenburg AFB and understood from how Harm flew that flying was his life. Looking over at Animal, Meg grinned knowing that Harm and Animal were two peas in a pod. The gold wings glittered on both her man's and Lia's man's dress whites and she sighed softly as Harm inquisitively looked at her. She nodded at him to put his mind at ease and she marvelled at how they could both silently communicate to each other. When Harm had found out from Captain Pike who had put it to him bluntly that " _This_ _numbnuts_ _back here with the_ _doll_ _will be commanding a_ _squadron_ _before_ _you_ _..._ " Harm knew that his time was up in terms of flying. Too short on hours, too short on number of traps. If he had stayed with the Raptors he would have topped out as an O4 with no chance to advance. Meg understood deep down inside that both revelations were devastating to Harm and as such, she knew that she wouldn't press him to make a relationship decision. But Harm had healed though there were scars there. Was it the right time, well, she took a chance and gave him the revelation that she was interested in him and the reward was that he was ready. And Meg had reaped the rewards that Sarah Mackenzie wasn't willing to wait for. She snuggled into his embrace as they listened to the string quartet playing.

The string quartet had allowed the brass quintet to transitioned into Purcell's (Jeremiah Clarke's) Trumpet Tune and Air as the groom straightened up to stand tall at the presbytery as the eyes looked towards the entrance of the church where Sarah Mackenzie was dressed in a white gown and veil; her arm through the crook'd elbow of RADM AJ Chegwidden as she started down the aisle. Meg sensed Mac's hostile glare at her as she held Harm's hand and patted it, connivingly, in full view of Sarah Mackenzie coming down the aisle during the wedding processional; but Meg felt a warming sense of self-satisfaction at having one-upped Mac. Harm's wide grin projected his happiness to all within his range of sight. And it seemed as though everybody in the church was happy…all except for Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mackenzie, United States Marine Corp and soon to be spouse of Commander Mic Brumby of the Royal Australian Navy.

Lia and Meg were sitting on the inside as Harm and Animal took the outer edges of the pew and that allowed Meg and Lia to share a smile at each other nodding that they both saw Mac nearly grit her teeth painfully when Meg had given Harm's hand a squeeze.

As Mac approached the presbytery Mic gazed into Mac's eyes while she tried to make the best of a bad situation.

The pastor spread his arms and spoke "Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today in the presence of these witnesses, to join Mic Brumby and Sarah Mackenzie in matrimony commended to be honorable among all; and therefore is not to be entered into lightly but reverently, passionately, lovingly and solemnly. Into this - these two persons present now come to be joined. If any person can show just cause why they may not be joined together - let them speak now or forever hold their peace." At that Mac gazed out towards the congregation gathered; her eyes locking on Harm, a silent plea in their brown depths.

Harm just gripped Meg's hand tighter in view of Sarah Mackenzie and held his peace because he knew for a fact that he had a better prize in hand in Megan Austin. He could see Mac grit her teeth and for a moment he swore he saw flames in her eyes and steam coming out of her ears.

AJ stood silently, a post in white dress uniform and gold braid, waiting for the cue from the pastor of, "Who supports this woman in her marriage?"

"I do…" AJ stated firmly and audibly to the rest of the congregation though his head was directed towards the pastor, taking his hand, gathering Sarah's hand and placing it in Mic Brumby's. Softly saying, "Take care of her, Commander." He stepped back to the side, nodded to the pastor and then went to sit down. Animal and the other three moved over slightly to allow the RADM to sit down.

"In the words of Edmund O'Neil," the pastor began. "I now quote his words: Marriage is a commitment to life, the best that two people can find and bring out in each other. It offers opportunities for sharing and growth that no other relationship can equal. It is a physical and an emotional joining that is promised for a lifetime. Within the circle of its love, marriage encompasses all of life's most important relationships. A wife and a husband are each other's best friend, confidant, lover, teacher, listener, and critic. And there may come times when one partner is heartbroken or ailing, and the love of the other may resemble the tender caring of a parent for a child. Marriage deepens and enriches every facet of life. Happiness is fuller, memories are fresher, commitment is stronger, even anger is felt more strongly, and passes away more quickly. Marriage understands and forgives the mistakes life is unable to avoid. It encourages and nurtures new life, new experiences, and new ways of expressing a love that is deeper than life. When two people pledge their love and care for each other in marriage, they create a spirit unique unto themselves which binds them closer than any spoken or written words. Marriage is a promise, a potential made in the hearts of two people who love each other and takes a lifetime to fulfill." After finishing the reading, the pastor nodded to Mic and to Mac.

"I, Mic Brumby, take you, Sarah Mackenzie, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part." Mic gazed into Mac's eyes seeking reassurance that this was the right thing for them.

Mac, stunned and spiteful at Harm for his rejection of her, wholeheartedly put into words to Mic doing an Oscar-winning performance of the _in-love_ bride; took a deep breath then replied, "I, Sarah Mackenzie, take you, Mic Brumby, to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part."

"You may now exchange rings…" The pastor prompted them with a benevolent smile on his face as he brought his hands together in an expression of piousness.

"I give you this ring as a symbol of my love and faithfulness. As I place it on your finger, I commit my heart and soul to you. I ask you to wear this ring as a reminder of the vows we have spoken today." They both repeated the vows as each placed rings on each other's left hand ring fingers, then continued to hold hands.

"Now that Mic Brumby and Sarah Mackenzie have given themselves to each other by solemn vows, with the joining of hands and the giving and receiving of rings, with the power invested in me by the Commonwealth of Virginia, I pronounce that they are husband and wife, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." The pastor smiled and stated, "You may now kiss the bride."

Mic leaned in and Mac grabbed him by the head pulling him towards her and a lip-lock ensued. She was going to make Harm jealous. But was completely unaware that the wedding kiss hadn't fazed Harm in the very slightest. He was smiling at Meg who smiled back at him and that made Mac absolutely furious.

The pastor raised his hands above his head so that the congregation could see, asked the couple to turn around and stated, "I present to you Commander and Mrs. Mic Brumby…" as Mac winced, another black mark against Mic who had made it seem as though Mac hadn't had a military rank to begin with. But she opted to seethe in silence. There was no arch of swords as the RAN didn't bother with that tradition.

However the bride and groom first had to run a gauntlet of Mic Brumby's mates in the Royal Australian Navy, who managed to show up for the wedding, US Navy officers and opted to line both sides of the cement walkway as the couple walked through. As they got to the end, RAN Commodore Howell and VADM Nakamura extended their hands in front of the couple to say. "Halt…Kiss the Bride, Commander." Animal stood to one side grinning while Commodore Howell grinned an equally wide grin.

"Yes, sir…gladly…" Mic grinned at Mac who swore to herself that she was going to get the VADM back for that. Harm and Meg gladly absconded from the wedding ceremony venue to head back to the hotel where they were going to change into more suitable reception clothes and wait for the bride and groom to get there. Lia and Animal chose to do the same.

It didn't take much to clear out the church as accounts were squared up so that the bridal group could take their leave of the ceremonial venue.

 _ **Mic and Mac's Wedding Reception; Ballroom, Hilton Garden Inn, Falls Church, VA 1630hrs**_

Mic and Mac showed up at the reception ballroom where the tables were decorated in cream and navy blue. A large Royal Australian Navy logo on the wedding cake on a table located in the center of the hall sat as the main centerpiece. There was a cleared off large area for dancing to the side of the bride and groom's table. Tulle navy blue ribbons were intertwined with white strung up along the walls and Navy Blue and White balloons were festooned all over the room. Little tea candles set up along the each of the tables lit up the dimly lit room and the caterers were rushing in and out of the room with calculated economy of motion. Most of the people were sitting at the tables denoted by the cards. Mic had made sure to place Meg at Harm's table and because of their friendship with the vice-admiral, he had opted to make certain that VADM Nakamura and his wife were seated there as well. Bud and Harriet were also at that table and AJ Chegwidden would be seated there as well. AJ opted to not come with a plus-one and therefore preferred to sit with people that he knew. The rest of the JAG office were scattered amongst several other tables. He also made sure that there were tables for all the Royal Australian Navy officer friends who had made the long journey from Down Under to toast his marriage to Sarah.

Mic was gratified to see that the wedding reception preparations had turned out so well. His friends from the Royal Australian Navy had made the trip from Australia to DC just to see him get married to his Marine. He was also gratified that he had made peace with Rabb and befriended his new girlfriend, Meg and the fact that the Vice-Admiral and Lia were also in his corner was one of the highlights to his nuptials. His longtime friend, Commander Andrew Lucas, RAN, was the man asked to be his emcee for the evening, allowing Bud to sit down with his wife.

One of Mic's other boisterous friends, a huge six foot six Maori specimen, who appeared to be the party-animal of the group, by the name of Raori Paura; Commander, Royal Australian Navy, CO of a RAN tin-can cat-called the groom. "Aye, Mic…ya been campin' with the Seppos for too damned long! Ya can't take the Supershine any more. This beer tastes like 'orse-piss!" The RAN contingent laughed exuberantly as the US Navy officers looked rather insulted.

Mic, with a great big grin on his face, roared back, "Raori, y'couldn't down a butcher without being off yer face. It coulda been worse, mate, we coulda been celebratin' with porridge eatin' Poms. One Snake Venom and you'd be flat on yer ass." Anybody who was a beer connoisseur knew that the Scottish beer Snake Venom stank of alcohol, a sixty-seven and a half percent alcohol content and was recommended to be drunk like scotch: a little at a time.

"I could still drink ya under the table, mate!" Raori shot back waving his hands in the air. Animal looked over at the gigantic Maori-Australian – evidently the guy was definitely three sheets to the wind; Raori's eyes were red and his words were slurring together and his hand gestures were expansive, nearly throwing him off balance. Animal wondered just how much CDR Paura had drunk before the reception started.

"Siddown, Raori!" roared Commodore Howell. "No riling up the Seppos, they're our comrades for this evening!"

Lieutenant Commander Harry Badjidi grinned, "Yer a lightweight, ya bastard!" Harry aimed that at Raori.

"Shut up, Banana Bender!" Raori aimed back at Harry.

By this time, the American naval officers were wondering if there was an all-out brawl brewing. Their looks at each other were generating comments from the Aussies of "Don't scare the Seppos. They don't know that _bastard_ 's a form of endearment Down Under!"

Commander Lucas grinned as he pounded a beer stein with a table spoon. The loud clanging of metal on glass caused many to look up. "Shut up! Siddown, Raori, ya brick shithouse, you're scarin' the Seppos! Can I 'ave yer bloody attention! I'd like to address the groom." He roared out as the RAN contingent's eyes turned to the emcee. When he had silence, he addressed the couple. "Well, Mic, you've gone and well, done it. When I heard from you that you were getting married, and of all people in the damned world, you were marrying a Seppo, I'd thought you'd gone and done lost yer bloody mind! But then again, you've always been a stubborn drongo, but after seeing your Sheila, mate; good onya!" he gave Mic a thumbs-up who nodded with a happy smile as Mac raised her eyebrows at the emcee then over at Raori who was glaring at Harry.

"Here…Here!" yelled all the RAN contingent, raising their beer glasses.

Mac looked curiously at Mic and Mic replied, whispering to Mac, leaning in to direct his comment in her ear. "Don't worry 'bout Raori, luv, ever since the Vendetta, he's got kangaroos loose in the top paddock…" That got Mac even more confused than before. "Don't worry, luv, you'll get used to their craziness after a while; Raori always goes off like a frog in a sock."

Mac shrugged looking over at Harm who was talking with Meg. Her ire raised incrementally higher. This reception was going to drive her completely out of her mind by the end of it.

"When I knew Mic, he was just a little joey in the third grade. We grew up together in Melbourne and he was a right pisser. Always sassing the teachers but he straightened up and flew right cause we both entered the Royal Australian Navy and ended up making a career for ourselves." Commander Lucas stated as he looked over at the couple again. "I remember when his mum told him to be home for dinner, we were in seventh grade and we were off chasing magpies in the Great Stour and we stumbled across a bloody common tiger. I 'ad to tell him to leave the damned thing alone. But the drongo picks the damned thing up by the tail. It wasn't warm that day and the thing couldn't run guts for a slow butcher. He's lucky he didn't get bit or he'd been playin' the 'arp." CDR Lucas grinned at Mic and acknowledging Sarah Mackenzie, "You've been born under a lucky star, Mic…From that encounter to the fact that you weren't kicked out more often for bein' such pisser in school, to making a career in the Navy and now having a pretty Sheila as yer wife. I envy you. Mic. Good luck and congrats…"

After several more toasts, raised glasses and other well-wishes to the groom and to the bride from most of the RAN and several USN officers, the first dance of the night was declared the bride and groom dance which was a Rod Stewart tune for which the guests were directed to let the bride and groom dance solo and Lia could see that Mac wasn't enjoying the experience as much as she was trying to let on. She turned to her husband gratified that she hadn't experienced that sort of emotion when she was dancing with Tosh at her own wedding.

Mac kept glancing towards Harm, but Harm wouldn't meet Mac's eyes. Instead he was focusing his attention on his date and former partner and Mac gritted her teeth so hard that she was afraid that her teeth would snap in two.

Eventually, for Mac, the torturous event finally drew to a close and she was able to coax Mic to leave the wedding…after the customary toss of the wedding bouquet which upset Mac even further as the bouquet seemed to of its own accord drop as if GPS guided into Meg's hands and a hug ensued between Harm and Meg which by only inhuman means Mac was able to keep from screaming out of frustration. Upon the bride and groom's departure which was set off with the customary rice throwing, a garishly decorated _Just Married_ sign and tin cans tied to the back bumper of the honeymoon vehicle; Commander and Mrs. Brumby were sent on their way, with a last imploring look from Mrs. Brumby to Harm, which Harm happily ignored while focussing a kiss on Meg's cheek. That pretty much did it for Mac who turned around in a huff and slumped down in the car avoiding any eye-contact with the rest of the guests at the wedding.

Animal turned to Lia and said, "Shall we depart this wedding reception. We have to get on the road back home."

Lia nodded quietly and said, "I don't think we've heard the last of Mac yet…" She nodded knowingly at Harm and Meg. At least with Mac married, she thought _Harm and Meg have a chance to become a couple without the interference of Mac._ She had seen too many times where Mac had hurt Harm to the point where he had just withdrawn. Every attempt that he had made to indicate that he was interested in Mac caused Mac to shut him down. And Lia was tired of seeing Harm get hurt. At least Meg would help him to be happy for a change.

Animal looked over at Lia. "Let's get out of here, hon." He said as they walked to the car. He looked over his shoulder to see Harm and Meg making their exit from the wedding too towards the hotel. He waved at Harm and both Meg and Harm waved back.

Harm and Meg continued on their way after seeing Animal and Lia leave. "So glad that's over and we can get back to work."

Meg replied, "Yeah, you can say that again." She replied. "So now what?"

"I think we should check out of the hotel and head for my place. What do you think?" Harm suggested, looking over at Meg, as he gestured to the elevator that they were walking towards.

"I think that's a great idea." Meg smirked. "Then maybe we should discuss our new connection." She squeezed his arm as they walked. Harm grinned at her. About an hour after that they checked out, even though the rate was for another evening since they'd checked out after checkout time. But Harm was emotionally out of gas after seeing Mac get married and making sure that he made the right emotional connections with Meg so he just wanted to get on the road and get home to his place where he could crash for the night, preferably with Meg in his arms.

 _ **Washington Dulles International Airport, Fairfax, VA 2200hrs**_

"Sarah, what's wrong?" Mic asked, his eyes worried as he looked over at Mac who was staring out the window at the tarmac.

"Everything!" Mac snapped…her tone harsh. "I feel like I got rushed into this! This wasn't the ceremony I wanted, or the reception…or…" her voice trailed off as she crossed her arms tightly, not meeting Mic's concerned gaze.

"So what would you have wanted? Sarah?" Mic sounded confused.

"To not be pushed!"


End file.
